of ike Fixed Oils in. contact with Sulphur. 163 



organic compounds, in the hope of arriving at results of cor- 

 responding simplicity. My expectations, however, vfere dis- 

 appointed, and I was obliged to have recourse to the fixed 

 oils, on which sulphur has been long known to exert an action; 

 the product obtained by heating together olive oil and sulphur 

 until a uniform balsam-like substance was formed, having 

 been employed in medicine by the older physicians under the 

 name of the balsam of sulphur. 



The phaenomena which manifest themselves during the 

 mutual action of sulphur and a fixed oil are these : — At the 

 first application of heat, the sulphur melts and forms a stratum 

 at the bottom of the oil ; but as the temperature rises it slowly 

 dissolves, with the formation of a thick viscid fluid of a dark 

 red colour. As the heat approaches that at which the oil 

 undergoes decomposition when heated alone, a violent action 

 takes place attended by the evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen 

 in such abundance, that the viscid mass swells up and occupies 

 a space many times its original bulk. If at this point the 

 mixture be allowed to cool, it concretes into a tough sticky 

 tenacious mass, adhering strongly to the fingers, and having 

 a disagreeable sulphureous odour; if however the heat be 

 sustained, the frothing and evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen 

 continue, and at the same time an oil of a peculiar disgusting 

 odour, resembling that of garlic, but more disagreeable, passes 

 into the receiver. 



In the investigation of the products of this action, the first 

 and most essential step was to determine the particular con- 

 stituents of the oil from which they are derived. In order to 

 do this, it was necessary to examine separately the action of 

 sulphur upon each of its components. I commenced therefore 

 by making use of stearic acid, which can be readily obtained 

 in a pure state : experiment however showed that none of the 

 peculiar products were derived from it; for when mixed with 

 half its weight of sulphur and distilled, mere traces of sulphu- 

 retted hydrogen were evolved, and the products were identical 

 with those obtained from the unmixed acid. The nauseous 

 smelling oils being then obviously derived either from the 

 oleic acid, or the glycerine of the oil, I prepared a quantity 

 of pure oleic acid, by the decomposition of the aethereal solu- 

 tion of the oleate of lead. This, when mixed with half its 

 weight of sulphur, and distilled in a capacious retort, under- 

 went decomposition precisely as the crude fixed oil did ; sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen was developed in great abundance, and 

 the product of the distillation could not be distinguished from 

 that which I had previously obtained. I was unable to obtain 

 glycerine in sufficient qunntij.y to make a separate investiga- 



M 2 



