abstracts: industrial chemistry 257 



tigators it was found that there was an increase in water-soluble con- 

 stituents and an increase in acidity. At the same time ammonia and 

 amines were formed. (2) By the process of heating there were formed 

 xanthine, hypoxanthine, guanine, cytosine, and arginine, when not 

 previously existing. These compounds are decomposition products of 

 nucleic acid and protein material and are all beneficial to plant growth. 

 (3) Guanine is reported for the first time as a constituent of soil organic 

 matter. (4) Dihydroxystearic acid was increased when present, and 

 produced, when not previously present, by the heating process. This 

 compound is harmful to plant growth. (5) Both beneficial and harm- 

 ful compounds were produced by heating the soils and were isolated. 

 This bears out the experience of previous investigators with cultural 

 tests. (6) Cultural tests in these soils and their extracts showed that 

 the heated soils gave a poorer plant growth. (7) Although the majority 

 of compounds formed must be classed as beneficial, the harmful com- 

 pound formed at the same time more than overbalances their effects. 

 Not until this harmful compound is eliminated or diminished can the 

 full beneficial effects of heating be demonstrated. (8) In soils there 

 is a balance of beneficial and harmful factors, soil fertility or infertility 

 being the resultant of the two groups. As one or the other group of 

 factors gains the ascendency, the fertility is raised or lowered, as the 

 case may be. This balance is influenced by cultural treatment, fer- 

 tilizers, liming, crop growth, or crop rotation, etc., as well as by steam- 

 ing. (9) The results show that altho the soils studied have received 

 the same kind of organic matter and have received the same form treat- 

 ment, they have been subject to different biochemical factors, result- 

 ing in differences in their organic matter and in differences in their 

 fertility. E. C. L. 



INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY.— TAe effect of certain pigments on Un- 

 seed oil with a note on manganese content of raw linseed oil. E. W. 

 BouGHTON. Circular of the Bureau of Chemistry No. 111. 1913. 

 Raw linseed oil was mixed with different pigments so that the paint 

 thus prepared had a consistency similar to that of ordinary mixed paint, 

 ready for use. The containers were air tight and the paints were kept 

 for two years. Samples of the oil from each paint were withdrawn at 

 the end of one and of two years, and the constants thereof determined. 

 The raw oil had a specific gravity of 0.934 (15.6/15/6°C.). The great- 

 est increase (to 0.940) was caused by white lead (basic carbonate). 

 Flake graphite, zinc oxide and zinc chromate had no appreciable effect. 



