312 Drs. Muspratt and Hofmann on Nitraniline, 



I noticed the risings of the once soft mass, round the impres- 

 sions, indicating with certainty that some "weight had caused 

 the deep markings alluded to. 



Belle Vue, Ventuor, Isle of Wicht, S. M. S. 



February 20, 1846. 



■ • • " •• ■ - • ■ ■ . , ==^ 



XLVIII. On Nitraniline, a new Product of Decomposition of 

 Binitrobenzole. By James Sheridan Muspratt, Ph.D. 

 and Augustus William Hofmann, Ph.D* 



\ GREAT number of investigations have proved that the 

 **• action of nitric acid upon organic bodies produces 

 changes in their composition in two ways. First, there is 

 sometimes simply an accession of oxygen to the elements of 

 the organic matter, the nitric acid being reduced to nitric 

 oxide or nitrous acid and expelled. Thus, by treating indigo 

 with nitric acid it becomes converted into isatine, the compo- 

 sition of which differs from that of indigo only by containing 

 two equivalents of oxygen more than the latter. Cinnamic 

 acid passes into hydride of benzoyle, water being formed, and 

 the excess of carbon, combining with the oxygen of the nitric 

 acid, escapes in the form of carbonic acid. By a further 

 supply of oxygen the hydride of benzoyle is converted into 

 benzoic acid. In all other cases the action of nitric acid 

 differs in no respects from that of other means of oxidation, 

 ex. gr. chromic acid, peroxide of manganese and sulphuric 

 acid, &c. 



The action of nitric acid however upon organic matters is 

 in other cases more complex ; it does not consist solely in the 

 supply of oxygen, but besides that element, nitrogen also 

 enters into the newly-formed compound. Indigo, subjected 

 for a long time to the action of concentrated nitric acid, under- 

 goes a series of metamorphoses, and the last product which 

 is formed, namely, carbazotic acid (nitrophenisic acid), con- 

 tains to the same quantity of carbon a much larger propor- 

 tion of nitrogen than the indigo from which it is derived. 



Cinnamic acid, hydride of benzoyle, and benzoic acid, none of 

 which contain nitrogen, furnish, as the last product of the 

 action of nitric acid, a nitrogenous acid, which is known as 

 nitrobenzoic {nitrobenzinic) acid. 



A great many of the nitrogenous compounds produced in 

 this manner possess the properties of acids. Besides the above- 

 mentioned we might enumerate nitrocinnamic acid, nitrosali- 

 cylic acid (anilic acid), and many others similarly constituted. 



* Communicated bv the Chemical Society; having been read March 16, 

 1846. 



