OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 9 



The crude product with which we started in the following study of 

 the oil was extracted, from ground Bengal turmeric with ligroine, in 

 the way already described iu the first paper* of this series. After 

 being freed from the higher boiling portions of the ligroine by heating 

 to 150° in a boiling- flask, it formed a rather thick oily liquid, with a 

 yellow color, and pleasant aromatic smell. The purification offered 

 some difiiculty, because it was decomposed by distillation under ordin- 

 ary pressure, giving distillates with a rank, disagreeable smell ; and 

 distillation with steam, although effecting a partial purification, was an 

 extremely tedious process, owing to the difiiculty with which the oil 

 was driven over. We were therefore obliged to resort to fractional 

 distillation under diminished pressure, and in this way at last suc- 

 ceeded in sejDarating the oil into three fractions, — the first, boiling below 

 193° under 60 mm. of pressure; the second, from 193°-198°; and the 

 third, the retort residue, a viscous, semi-solid body of extremely unin- 

 viting appearance. We have up to this time confined our attention 

 to the middle fraction, although a few experiments on the fraction 

 below 193° would indicate that it consists of the middle fraction con- 

 taminated with hydrocarbons from the ligroine used in the extraction 

 of the oil, — a view which is borne out by the very small amount of this 

 fraction. For the fraction from 193°-198°, which is the subject of 

 this paper, we would propose the name turmerol. 



Composition of Turmerol. 



I. 0.1924 g. of the oil gave 0.5903 g. of CO2 and 0.1814 g. of 

 H,0. 

 11. 0.3126 g. gave 0.9588 g. of CO^ and 0.3010 g. of H,0. 



III. 0.2354 g. gave 0.7157 g. of CO^ and 0.2190 g. of lip. 



IV. 0.2002 g. gave 0.6123 g. of CO^ and 0.1818 g. of H.^. 

 V. 0.2448 g. gave 0.7492 g. of COg and 0.2306 g. of l\0. 



I. II. III. IV. V. Mean. 



Carbon 83.68 83.66 82.90 83.43 83.47 83.62 

 Hydrogen 10.47 10.70 10.34 10.10 10.47 10.42 



I. -III. are analyses of the same sample ; IV. and V. analyses of a 

 different sample. To test the purity of the oil, the original sample 

 was distilled again in vacuo, and collected in three equal fractions. 

 Of the analyses which follow, VI. was made with the portion which 

 came over first ; VII. and VIII. with that which came over last. 



* These Proceedings, Vol. XVII. p. 110. 



