OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 11 



Properties of Turmerol. 



The substance analyzed by us had a pale yellow color, an agreeable, 

 not very strong aromatic smell, and a specific gravity of 0.9016 at 

 17°. It turns a ray of polarized light to the right with the following 

 specific rotary power for sodium light : — 



[a] = 33.52. 



Under ordinary pressure it boils at 285°-290°, but decomposes 

 apparently with formation of water, giving a substance with a lower 

 boiling-point. At a pressure of 60 mm. it boils from 193° - 198°, 

 but even under this pressure suffers a slight decomposition. It is 

 essentially insoluble in water, but mixes easily with all other common 

 solvents. Acid sodic sulphite in aqueous solution has no action 

 upon it. 



In order to determine the nature of turmerol, its behavior with 

 various reagents was next studied. 



Action of Hydrochloric Acid. Turmerylchloride. 



"When turmerol was heated with aqueous hydrochloric acid satur- 

 ated at 0° to 150° in a sealed tube for some hours, a brown oily liquid 

 was formed having a different smell from the original substance, which, 

 when washed until free from acid and dried in vacuo, gave the follow- 

 ing results on analysis : — 



I. 0.2938 g. of substance gave 0.8464 g. of CO^ and 0.2530 g. of 

 H,0. 

 0.4434 g. of substance gave according to Carius 0.2190 g. of 

 AgCl. 

 11. 0.3179 g. of substance gave 0.1518 g. of AgCl. 



Found. 



IL 



11.80 



100.00 100.35 



Analyses I. and II. were made with specimens from different prepara- 

 tions. The substance was a pale brownish oil with an agreeable smell, 

 different from that of turmerol ; it decomposed on distillation, and also 

 lost chlorine when distilled with steam or even with fuming hydro- 

 chloric acid. 



The same compound was formed by the action of phosphorous 



