OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 249 



XII. 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE CHEMICAL LABORATORY OF 



HARVARD COLLEGE. 



ON BENZYLDIMETHYLAMINE. 



By C. Loring Jackson and John F. Wing. 



At the beginning of the last academic year we prepared the benzyl- 

 dinaethylamine with the intention of making an extended research on 

 this substance ; but as the carrying out of this research has been 

 indefinitely postponed on account of the pressure of other more inter- 

 esting work, we have thought it proper to publish tlie results already 

 obtained, consisting of the j^reparation and properties of the base and 

 some of its salts, for the benefit of any one who may follow us in this 

 line of research, rather than on account of any especial interest in the 

 results themselves. 



The benzyldimethylamine has been already obtained by Schotten,* 

 as one of the products of the distillation of the free base derived from 

 the addition product of methylbenzylpiperidine and methyliodide ; but 

 he contented himself with the determination of its presence by the 

 analysis of its chlorplatinate. 



Benzyldimethylamine. — To prepare the substance an alcoholic solu- 

 tion of dimethylamine was made by the decomposition of nitrosodi- 

 methylaniline, according to the method of Baeyer and Caro,t the gas 

 being passed into absolute alcohol, and this was allowed to stand for 

 some hours with benzylchloride. At the end of this time, the reaction, 

 which was accompanied with evolution of heat, was finished ; and after 

 distilling off the alcohol on the water-bath, the product was treated 

 with water, and then with hydrochloric acid, after which it was ex- 

 tracted with ether to remove a slight non-basic impurity. The base 

 was then set free with sodic hydrate, extracted with ether, washed in 

 tlie ethereal solution, dried with potassic hydrate, and purified by dis- 

 tillation after driving off the ether. The aqueous liquid, from which 



* Ber. d. eh. G., 1882, p. 424. t Ibid., 1874, p. 963. 



