IS^EW York Agricultural Experiment Station. 135 



The concentrated aqueous solution gives a white precipitate with 

 silver nitrate in excess which dissolves on largely diluting with 

 water. The precipitate is readily soluble in ammonia, dilute nitric, 

 sulphuric and acetic acids, insoluble in glacial acetic acid. 



With ferric chloride it gives a white or faintly yellowish precipitate 

 which is very sparingly soluble in acids. 



With lead acetate a white precipitate is produced, readily soluble 

 in dilute nitric acid, but sparingly soluble in acetic acid. 



With barium chloride it gives a white precipitate sHghtly soluble 

 in acetic acid, but readily soluble in hydrochloric and nitric acids. 



Calcium chloride does not give a precipitate, but, on heating, the 

 calcium salt is thrown down as a white precipitate which redissolves 

 on cooling. 



Magnesium salts do not cause a precipitate, and on heating the 

 solution merely turns cloudy; on cooling it clears up again. 



With the ordinary molybdate solution it gives in the cold a white 

 voluminous flaky precipitate which slowly turns yellowish in color. 

 Phytic acid under the same conditions gives a white precipitate 

 which remains unchanged in the cold. On drying at 110° or 130° 

 the substance turns very dark in color. 



The ester, like phytic acid, fails to give directly the Scherer reaction 

 for inosite. 



INOSITE FROM THE TETRA-PHOSPHORIC ESTER. 



Ten gm. of the purified barium salt was heated with 25 cc. 30 per 

 ct. sulphuric acid in a sealed tube to about 150° C. for three hours. 

 After precipitating the sulphuric and phosphoric acids with barium 

 hydroxide the inosite was isolated by the usual method and recrys- 

 tallized from hot dilute alcohol. It was filtered and washed in 

 alcohol and ether and dried in the air. Yield 1.52 gm. It was 

 obtained in the form of small colorless six-sided plates, free from 

 water or crystallization. The air-dried, water-free substance melted 

 at 221° C, uncor. 



0.2094 gm. substance gave 0.1259 gm. H2O and 0.3033 gm. CO2. 



0.1360 gm. " " 0.0827 gm.HaO " 0.1991 gm. CO2. 



For CeHiaOe = 180. 



Calculated C 40.00 per ct., H 6.66 per ct. 



Found C 39.50 per ct., H 6.72 per ct. 



C 39.93 per ct., H 6.80 per ct. 



As already mentioned, if a mixture of inosite and phosphoric acid 

 is heated when less than 6 mol. H3PO4 are present to 1 mol. inosite, 

 a mixture of esters is obtained. It was found impossible to separate 

 these bodies as barium salts and obtain pure compounds, since their 

 solubilities are apparently nearly alike. 



3.60 gm. dry inosite (2 mol.) and 5.88 gm. dry phosphoric acid 

 (6 mol.) were heated in a distillation flask as before to 180°-190° for 



