. • V ' !56>i VinnOmic and Benzoic Acids. 131 



yellow colour. This operation was several times repeated 

 with similar results. In this respect the oil very closely re- 

 sembles chlorbenzine, which also cannot be distilled without 

 being more or less decomposed. As the oil was always par- 

 tially decomposed when distilled off fused chloride of calcium, 

 another portion of it was repeatedly rectified with the vapour 

 of water. The oil then came over quite colourless and neu- 

 tral. This operation also freed it from a quantity of resinous 

 matter which very readily forms in it. The purified oil when 

 freed from water as well as possible was still more completely 

 dried by being kept for some weeks over sulphuric acid in 

 vacuo. When heated it readily catches fire and burns with a 

 green-coloured flame, and emits fumes of muriatic acid gas. 

 When heated with caustic potash, it is partially decomposed 

 with the formation of chloride of potassium. When the oil is 

 treated with strong nitric acid, it is readily attacked with co- 

 pious evolution of deutoxide of nitrogen; and on the cooling 

 of the liquid the oil is converted into a crystalfine mass. The 

 acid which is formed contains nitrogen and crystallizes rea- 

 dily; it is very soluble both in water and in alcohol; it forms 

 soluble salts with the alkalies, and when neutralized it causes 

 no precipitate in solutions of lime or silver salts. I have sub- 

 jected portions of the chlorine oil, prepared at different times, 

 to numerous analyses, from the results of whieh I am induced 

 to believe that it is a carburetted hydrogen in which variable 

 quantities of the hydrogen are replaced by chlorine. As the 

 oil is a neutral body, J have been unable to determine its 

 atomic weight, but I expect that the examination of the acid 

 wJiich it forms with nitric acid will throw some light upon this 

 point. I am at present occupied with this subject, the results 

 of which I expect to communicate very soon. It has been al- 

 ready stated that the chlorine oil may also be readily pro- 

 cured by digesting cinnamic acid with chlorate of potash and 

 muriatic acid. It is also invariably formed when a stream of 

 chlorine gas is passed through a hot solution of cinnamic acid; 

 so that there are three different methods by which it can be 

 procured. The production of this oil. forms an excellent test 

 for the presence of cinnamic acid, j io jnill iiuiliJiUjrtyc (i-j.-.uLi 

 When either salicine or phloridzine are digested with a so- 

 lution of hypochlorite of lime, carbonate of lime and resinous 

 substances also united to lime are produced, but neither chlo- 

 ranil nor any oily or crystalline compounds. 



j^jil^ffii^a^iion of ike Acids formed hy ike Action of Hypochlo' 

 4Yi':i-:iy:jVtte,t^Xjime on Cinnamic and Benzoic Acids, 



' After the mixture of hypochlorite of lime and cinnamic acid 

 ^ K2 



