168 Professor Apjohn on a new Compound. 



we find such to be the case, we shall be fortified in the conclusion which we have 

 drawn. 



With a view to this method of verification, let the numbers which represent 

 the iodide of potassium and iodine, and that which is supposed to represent the 

 oil, be divided by their respective atomic weights, and let the quotients be 

 reduced to others in the same ratio, and so that the iodide of potassium may be 

 represented by unity. When these arithmetical operations are performed, we 

 obtain the numbers in the second and third columns of the following table, the 

 former being the quotients themselves, and the latter other numbers bearing to 

 each other the same proportion. 



(1) 

 Iodide of potassium . . 12.55 



Iodine 28.14 



Oil of cinnamon . . . 59.30 



The numbers, it will be seen, in the last column approximate so clearly to 

 the integers 1, 3, and 6, as to leave little doubt that the true empirical formula 

 is 



IK + Ij+Cin,.* 



A conclusion which is strikingly confirmed by the following statement of the 

 composition of our substance in 100 parts, calculated upon this hypothesis : 



Iodide of potassium .... 12.26 



Iodine 28.08 



Oil of cinnamon 59.66 



100.00 



To apply, however, to this conclusion the most decisive test, it remained to 

 burn the substance with oxide of copper, and see whether the carbonic acid and 

 water thus obtained would correspond with the amount of oil of cinnamon 

 ascribed to the compound. 



7.08 grains (Liebig's apparatus for potash being employed) yielded of car- 

 bonic acid 12.70 grains, and of water 2.60, — equivalent to 3.513 carbon, and 

 0.233 hydrogen. But, adopting for a moment the empirical formula already 



* Cin is assumed as the symbol for the oil of cinnamon. 



