Action of Chlorine on Cinnamic and Benzoic Acids. 12^ 



through NO and the zenith. [Perhaps I may be allowed to 

 suggest, that it would be an advantage to some of M. Gra- 

 vier's results, were they reduced so as to have reference either 

 to the pole of the earth, or to the magnetic pole as a zenith 

 point.] 'yU'Ji.u ...I, .). I 



Through the medium of your valuble Journal, I desire to 

 obtain for this communication the attention of men of science 

 who are engaged in inferring from observations the general 

 laws of phaenomena. The advantage of the method I have 

 proposed will be immediately seen by every person who will 

 give it a trial ; I shall not, therefore, occupy your space by 

 any further statement of its superiority, but conckide with re- 

 marking, that unless the plan I have proposed be followed, 

 the method of polar co-ordinates is inferior to that of rectan- 

 gular co-ordinates, and is deprived of some of the advantages 

 which it can be made to possess. 



Cambridge, June 27> 1845. 



XXII. On the Action of Chlorine on Cinnamic and Benzoic. 

 Acids, ^j/ John Sten HOUSE, P/i.Z).* j, 



IN a short paper " On the Action of Peroxide of Lead on 

 Cinnamic Acid," published in vol. xix. of the Philo- 

 sophical Magazine so long ago as the year IS^l, I have in- 

 cidentally mentioned that " when cinnamic acid is boiled with 

 a solution of hypochlorite of lime, it is converted into benzoic 

 acid with the formation of an oily liquid, which however is 

 not oil of bitter almonds, as its taste and smell are quite dif- 

 ferent and much more aromatic." The extremely small quan- 

 tity in which I at that time obtained this oily liquid unfortu- 

 nately prevented me from being able to subject it to examina- 

 tion. As I was subsequently led to doubt if the acid into 

 which the cinnamic acid had been decomposed was really the 

 benzoic acid as I then imagined, I was induced, nearly six 

 months ago, to resume the subject. While thus engaged, I 

 was surprised to find the following passage in a paper on 

 Chloranil, by Dr. Hofmann, read before the Chemical Society 

 in December last:— " Neither phloridzine, phloretine, cuma- 

 rine, nor cinnamic acid are transformable into chloranil. The 

 first three furnish, by the action of chlorate of potash, yellow 

 resinous bodies insoluble in water but soluble in alcohol, while 

 the last is converted into a colourless oil^ to which I shall recur 

 in a future paper f." 



From the perusal of the above extract I was immediately 

 led to suspect that Dr. Hofmann had, by a different process, 

 * Communicated by the Author. f See Phil. Mag. S. 3. vol. xxvi, p. 205. 



Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 27. No. 178. Augicst 184.5. K 



