On the Bases produced by the Destructive Distillation of Peat. Ill 



idea of the proportionate quantities of the various bases present, 

 for it was found that these proportions were not very materially 

 altered even after the tenth rectification. 



I I 



98 



175 



195 



275 



Between 500 and 600 distillations were performed during the 

 course of the present investigation, and the expenditure of 

 material, time, and labour has been very large. We could have 

 wished to offer an exhaustive account of the complex basic fluid 

 which we have worked upon ; the entire absence of any previous 

 knowledge of the bases produced by the destructive distillation 

 of peat must be our excuse for the imperfections of the present 

 memoir. 



A. few tentative experiments were first made as to the nature 

 and composition of the basic oils by means of their platinum 

 salts. But our attention was soon mainly directed to the most 

 volatile fraction collected between 95° and 97°, and the boiling- 

 point of which was almost constant at 97°. This liquid was in 

 reality separated by an interval of 23° from the next higher 

 fraction, while any more volatile bases that might originally 

 have been present in the distilled oil had been lost in the 

 various operations to which it had been subjected. To this body, 

 which subsequent examination proved to be a pure base, we 

 have assigned the name cespitine. We proceed to detail our 

 analyses and experiments, and to give some account of the pro- 

 perties of the new base and its derivatives. 



Cespitine. 



The fraction 95° to 100° of the 8th rectification was dried 



thoroughly with caustic potash and redistilled, — the portion 



coming over between 95° and 97°, which constituted T 9 oths of 



the whole, being employed for experiment. A considerable 



