Chemical History of Gun-Cotton and Xyloidine. 523L 



or 24 : 5, which accords with the proportions assigned by 

 M. Pelouze *. 

 The formula which best agrees with these results is the 



following : — C24 -I ctuq f^^i which reckoned to 100 parts^ 



gives — 



Carbon 26*23 



Hydrogen 2*73 



Nitrogen 12-75 



Oxygen 58*29 



In order to compare pyroxyline with xyloidine, I treated 

 starch with fuming nitric acid until the whole was converted 

 into a gelatinous mass. The addition of water then threw 

 down a white powder, which was subsequently well-washed 

 and dried. The iodine test proved the absence of all unal- 

 tered starch. The xyloidine thus obtained explodes at about 

 360°, leaving a carbonaceous residue. It is slightly soluble 

 in aether, with which it is capable of forming a peculiar com- 

 pound not yet investigated ; more so in alcohol, but most of 

 all in aether mixed with a small proportion of alcohol, or in 

 acetic aether. It is dissolved by strong sulphuric acid with- 

 out the aid of heat, and by boiling solutions of potash, am- 

 monia, hydrochloric acid and dilute sulphuric acid. These 

 solutions contain nitric acid, and nothing is precipitated 

 from them by dilution or neutralization. Xyloidine is also 

 soluble in strong acetic acid, or in nitric acid, whether fuming 

 or of sp. gr. 1*25, but is reprecipitated from either by dilu- 

 tion. 



It was also found that nitric acid of ordinary strength (sp. 

 gr. 1*45) answered equally well in the preparation of this 

 substance ; but when acid of sp. gr. 1*41 was employed no 

 such result was obtained. Starch treated with a mixture of 

 equal measures of nitric and sulphuric acids produced a sub- 

 stance of greater combustibility, and more closely resembling 

 pyroxyline, but differing from it in being soluble in glacial 

 acetic acid, and in a mixture of aether with one-tenth part of 

 alcohol, as also in the action that acetic aether exerts upon it, 

 Xyloidine also when subjected to the mixed acids gave a pro- 

 duct identical with the above, as far at least as the action of 

 solvents can prove. 



Xyloidine burnt by means of oxide of copper, with the 

 usual precautions, gave the following results. The sub- 

 stance employed in the third experiment was made from 

 arrow-root. 



* Compttt Rendus, Jan. 4. 



