OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 365 



to yield us results when the paper o'f Markwald * upon the same sub- 

 ject reached us, and we were therefore obliged to abandon our work 

 in this direction, and turned our attention to the products formed by 

 the action of bromine, which promised to repay investigation. We 

 felt ourselves quite at liberty to continue our study of furfuracrylic 

 acid in this direction, since Markwald had declared himself unable 

 to obtaiu well defined crystalline products in this way. 



Furfuracrylic Acid. 



In the preparation of furfuracrylic acid we have found it to our 

 advantage to modify slightly the proportions given by v. Baeyer, and 

 in this respect our experience agrees more closely with that of Mark- 

 wald. We have heated 2 parts of furfurol with 3 parts of fused sodic 

 acetate and 3 parts of acetic anhydride with reverse cooler at 160-170° 

 for about ten hours, extracted the acid with a dilute solution of sodic 

 carbonate, precipitated with hydrochloric acid, and recrystallized the 

 product thus obtained from boiling water. Although the yield varied 

 somewhat in successive preparations, we frequently obtained an amount 

 equal to the weight of furfurol employed. The melting point of the pure 

 acid we found to be 140°, in agreement with the observations of Jaffe 

 and Cohn,f instead of 136° as given by v. Baeyer. From the acid we 

 made the methyl ether and the amide, which we may describe a little 

 more in detail, since no description of them has yet been published. 



Methyl Furfuracrylate, C.H.CX . CH 3 . — By precipitating with ar- 

 gentic nitrate a solution of ammonic furfuracrylate the silver salt was 

 obtained as a heavy curdy precipitate. This was carefully dried and 

 treated with an excess of methyl iodide. When the decomposition 

 was complete the product of the reaction was extracted with ether, 

 and purified by distillation under diminished pressure. Under a 

 pressure of 15 mm. the methyl furfuracrylate distils unchanged at 

 112°, and the distillate solidifies in beautiful rhombic crystals which 

 melt at 27°. Under a pressure of 774 mm. we found that the ether 

 distilled without apparent decomposition at 227-228°. It possessed 

 an agreeable characteristic odor, and dissolved readily in alcohol, ether, 

 ligroin, or benzol. An analysis gave the following results : — 



0.2224 grm. substance gave 0.5157 grm. C0 2 and 0.1084 grm. H 2 0. 



Calculated for 



C 8 H 9 O a . Found. 



C 63.17 63.23 



H 5.26 5.42 



* Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Gesellsch., xx. 2811. t Ibid., xx. 2315. 



