produced by the Destructive Distillation of Peat t, 115 



amylamine. And when this iodide was acted upon by oxide of 

 silver, and the hydrate thus produced combined with hydro- 

 chloric acid, an excessively soluble chloride was obtained, which 

 did not exhibit a trace of crystallization when evaporated to dry- 

 ness, and had in fact no character in common with that of the 

 highly crystalline and difficultly soluble chloride of diamyl- 

 ammonium. 



Cespitine is isomeric not only with amylamine, but also with 

 diethylmethylamine and dimethylpropylamine ; and since it has 

 been found to contain no replaceable hydrogen, it seemed pro- 

 bable that it might be one of the nitryles just mentioned. But 

 cespitine is entirely unacted upon by nitrous acid, not a trace of 

 any alcohol being produced, and the original base being recover- 

 able by distillation with potash. In our ignorance of the true 

 constitution of cespitine we have supposed it to contain the tri- 

 atomic radical (C 10 H 13 )'", although the unusually large propor- 

 tion of hydrogen casts a doubt upon such a view. All our ex- 

 periments with cespitine lead us to believe that it bears the 

 same relation to the true amylamine as picoline does to aniline. 



Cespitine is a colourless oil, less fluid than water, and miscible 

 in all proportions with that liquid. It is nearly insoluble in a 

 saturated solution of caustic potash. It boils at about 95°, the 

 boiling-point of amylamine its isomer. It is lighter than water ; 

 its odour is powerful, and although slightly unpleasant, much 

 less so than amylamine. It precipitates many metallic solutions ; 

 with sulphate of copper it gives a green precipitate, soluble in 

 excess of the base with a pale green colour. With chloride of 

 mercury a beautiful pearly substance is deposited in iridescent 

 scales. The platinum double salt has been already described : 

 the gold salt is a pale yellow crystalline powder. The cadmium 

 double salt is very soluble, but it may be obtained in long colour- 

 less prisms by mixing strong solutions of hydrochlorate of ces- 

 pitine and chloride of cadmium, and then evaporating the liquid 

 over sulphuric acid. 



Pyridine. 



It will be seen from our further examination of the bases from 

 peat, that they are identical in composition with pyridine and its 

 homologues. And since we have not thought it necessary to 

 describe them minutely, we may here state that their properties, 

 physical and chemical, correspond closely with those of pyridine, 

 picoline, &c, as recorded by Anderson. 



The boiling-point assigned to pyridine is 116°- 5. The few 

 drops of base which distilled near this point, coming over in the 

 8th rectification between 110° ai\d 120°, were converted into the 

 hydrochlorate,, and precipitated with an insufficient quantity of 



