lxxxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



Ekstrand has prepared the hydrocarbon retene from the 

 heavy oils obtained in the distillation of wood, and has stud- 

 ied its properties. It forms sulpho-conjugated acids, and by 

 oxidation affords dioxyretistene and two other bodies, both 

 monobasic acids. 



Armstrong calls attention to some remarkable changes of 

 certain isomers in the aromatic series into each other, effect- 

 ed by changes of temperature; and hence infers that ex- 

 treme caution should be exercised in judging of the consti- 

 tution of these bodies. 



Meyer and Ambuhl have succeeded in producing a com- 

 pound in the fatty series analogous to azobenzol in the aro- 

 matic. When solutions of diazobenzol sulphate and sodium 

 nitro-ethane are mixed, a yellow oily body separates, which 

 after purification crystallizes in square orange-colored plates. 

 It is azo-nitro-ethyl-phenyl. 



Gutzeit has succeeded in isolating from the fruits of sev- 

 era! plants sufficient ethyl alcohol to prove that this sub- 

 stance, hitherto supposed to be solely a result of fermenta- 

 tion, is a normal constituent of the unfermented juices of 

 plants. 



Renard has made some experiments on the action of elec- 

 trolytic oxygen upon methyl and ethyl alcohols. Using five 

 Bunsen elements, and 100 cubic centimeters of ethyl alco- 

 hol acidulated with five per cent, of a dilute sulphuric acid, 

 the action being continued for forty-eight hours, he succeed- 

 ed in proving the presence in the liquid of methyl formate, 

 aldehyde, ethyl acetate, acetal, and a new body ethylidene 

 monoethylate. It is acetal in which ethyl is replaced by 

 hydrogen. Sulphethylic acid was also produced in the elec- 

 trolysis. Methyl alcohol thus treated yielded carbon diox- 

 ide and methyl oxide gases, besides methyl formate, methylal, 

 and methyl acetate. 



Wagner and Saytzeff have succeeded in synthetically pro- 

 ducing a new amyl alcohol. Of the eight isomeric amyl al- 

 cohols pointed out by theory, four are primary, three are 

 secondary, and one is tertiary. Of these, again, five were 

 previously known ; the new one now discovered is the sixth. 

 It is di-ethyl-carbinol, of course a secondary alcohol, and is 

 produced by the action of zinc-ethyl on ethyl formate, the re- 

 action being foreseen by theory before it was realized as fact. 



