OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 283 



These results agree nearly with those calculated for the following 

 formulas : — 



Calculated for 

 C ls H lg O. M H»0. 



Carbon 82.10 82.35 



Hydrogen 9.47 9.80 



Of these we prefer the first, as this brings the calculated percentage 

 of hydrogen below those found. On the other hand the percentages 

 of carbon found are all a little too high for this formula, which may 

 perhaps be due to the presence of a trace of ligroine. It is evideut 

 that it is impossible to decide with certainty from these analyses 

 which of these formulas is the correct one. 



Properties of Turmerol. — The turmerol, after the purification de- 

 scribed above, forms a yellowish oil, with a peculiar rather agreeable 

 odor. It is decomposed partially by distillation at ordinary pressure, 

 but under a pressure of 11-12 mm. it distils unchanged between 158° 

 and 163°. Its specific gravity at 24°, referred to water at 4°, is 

 0.9561. Turmerol acts upon polarized light, turning the ray toward 

 the right, with the following specific rotation for sodium light : 



[a] D = 24° .58. 



It mixes easily with the common organic solvents, but is insoluble in 

 water. 



Oxidation of Turmerol with Nitric Acid. 



In a previous paper* one of us with A. E. Menke showed that 

 turmerol, when oxidized in the cold with potassic permanganate, gave 

 in addition to carbonic dioxide and acetic acid two new acids, to which 

 the names turmeric acid and apoturmeric acid, and the formulas 

 C n H ]4 2 and C 10 H 12 O 4 ? were assigned. As in this work the charac- 

 terization of the apoturmeric acid was far from satisfactory owing to 

 the very small yields and the unmanageable nature of these acids and 

 their salts, and as we hoped by further study of these Bubstances to 

 throw light on the constitution of turmerol, we took up thia part of 

 the subject again. Since the preparation and purification according 

 to the methods used in the earlier work were tedious in tin- highest 

 degree, we tried the action of dilute nitric acid on turmerol in the 

 hope that this might lead us more quickly to the desired result. This 

 did not prove to be the case, but the product obtained was <|uite as 

 important as the two acids we had hoped to get. 



* These Proceedings, XIX. 215. 



