410 Foreign and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



fuses into a yellow liquid; by long digestion this disappears, and 

 the acid liquor, on cooling, deposits a large quantity of opaque white 

 crystals, which when boiled with water communicate an odour of 

 camphor to it. This is the camphoric acid of Bouillon, and it yields 

 salts either slightly soluble or insoluble. 



These crystals are a chemical combination of camphor and cam- 

 phoric acid, and may be prepared at once by dissolving camphor 

 in camphoric acid fused at a gentle heat. If they be acted on a 

 second time by strong nitric acid, crystals more transparent are 

 obtained, which give exactly the soluble salts described by Brandes. 

 Even this acid was found by M. Liebeg not to be quite pure, and 

 therefore it was again heated with nitric acid until the crystals 

 obtained, when boiled with water, gave no odour of camphor to its 

 vapour. 



Camphorate of lead was prepared with this acid and decomposed 

 by sulphuric acid; from 1105 parts of the camphorate were 

 obtained 760 of the sulphate, the equivalent number of the acid is 

 therefore 135.67. On analysing the camphorate of lead by oxide 

 of copper for the composition of camphoric acid, it came out as 

 follows : 



Calculation Experiment 



10 atoms of carbon 76.4370 or 56.29 56.167 



15 hydrogen 9.3597 6.89 6.981 



5 oxygen 50.0000 36.82 36.852 



135.7967 100.00 100.000 



Many chemists, * amongst which I counted myself/ says M. Liebeg, 

 calculate that 2 volumes of hydrogen are equal to an atom, whilst 

 others consider 1 volume as an atom. Camphoric acid seems to 

 leave no doubt on this subject : it contains 15 atoms of single volumes, 

 and only 7 J of double volumes. Now 7 J atoms could only arise 

 from an error in analysis, but every possible care was taken to avoid 

 these : on the contrary, 15 atoms is in the simplest ratio with the 

 other bodies present. 



When camphor is acted on by nitric acid, there is no effervescence, 

 and no carbonic acid gas is disengaged. It would seem as if the 

 camphor was merely oxidized. M. Liebeg, therefore, analysed 

 camphor to see if the mere addition of oxygen would give the con- 

 stitution of camphoric acid above determined. His best experiments 

 (of which he still speaks cautiously) gave 



Carbon 81.763 or 1 atom 

 Hydrogen 9.702 18 atoms 

 Oxygen 8.535 12 



The hydrogen and oxygen are, therefore, in the same ratio as in 

 camphoric acid, and if it be supposed that, during the action of nitric 

 acid on camphor, 5 atoms of oxygen be given, the acid will result. 



