Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 75 



distinguished. That which comes from China is of a reddish brown 

 colour, and its smell is disagreeable. The oil from Ceylon is sugary, 

 and has a sweet smell $ it is better than the former. 



Not being able to rely upon the oil of cinnamon procured in com- 

 merce, MM. Dumas and Peligot prepared it by distilling it from the 

 bark. In order to obtain the pure oil, the bark must be bruised, and 

 left twelve hours digesting in a saturated solution of salt, and then 

 subjected to rapid distillation over a naked fire. The water is milky, 

 and allows the oil to deposit ; and the water suffered to remain in 

 contact with the air becomes filled with lamellar and acicular crystals. 



When oil of cinnamon is treated with concentrated nitric acid, it 

 almost immediately concretes, and forms a true crystallized salt, in 

 which the oil serves as a base. This characteristic phenomenon is 

 very imperfectly produced in the oil of commerce from China and 

 Ceylon, requiring front eight to twelve hours for producing the effect ; 

 and while the pure oil is converted into a hard, friable, colourless, 

 crystalline mass, the oils of commerce always give a butyraceous pro- 

 duct, the crystals of which are evidently mixed with a deep-coloured 

 oleaginous substance, the nature of which is unknown. Oil of cin- 

 namon combines with dry gaseous muriatic acid. The purest be- 

 comes of a deep green tint 5 it forms a crystallizable product with 

 ammonia, unchangeable when exposed to the air. 



Oxygen gas is rapidly absorbed by oil of cinnamon, especially when 

 it is humid ; it forms in this way a new acid, which the authors call 

 cinnarnonic acid ; it appears to be similar to that produced in old oil 

 of cinnamon, or in cinnamon water exposed to the air. 



When oil of cinnamon is treated with hot nitric acid, a strong smell 

 of bitter almonds is produced, and when the action of the acid is over, a 

 great quantity of benzoic acid is found in the residue. If oil of cinna- 

 mon is boiled with a solution of chloride of lime, there is also found a 

 quantity of benzoic acid, or rather of benzoate of lime. The action 

 of chlorine on this oil presents some phenomena of great interest -, 

 the chlorine acts at first in forming a chloride of benzoyle ; but when 

 its action, aided by heat, is over, a very stable crystalline compound 

 is procured, in constitution approximating to a chlorate. 



Oil of cinnamon appears as a substance which acts the part of a 

 base. It combines with acids ; and MM. Dumas and Peligot do not 

 think that the action of ammonia upon it is of such a nature as to 

 modify the conclusions drawn from the action of acids. The oil pre- 

 pared as above gave bv analysis : 



C" ...' 1377-3 82-1 



H 16 1000 5-9 



O * 2000 12-0 



1677*3 1000 



Journal de Chimie Medicale, June 1, p. 217. 



ATOMIC WEIGHT OF ALUMINUM. 



In Silliman's Journal for January last is a paper by Mr. Mather, 



L2 



