CHEMISTKY. 



ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 



At the 18G8 meeting of the British Association, Mr. Alfred R. 

 Catton read a paper on organic chemistry, which commenced by 

 giving a brief resiimi of the results described in the reports pre- 

 sented by him to the Association at the Nottingham meeting in 

 18G6, and at the Dundee meeting last year, and of the objections 

 which had been raised as to those results and the manner in which 

 they had been obviated. 



In consequence of these objections, and the admitted difficulty 

 of the research, and in consequence of the liability to error therein, 

 it was considered desirable that the research should be commenced 

 de noi'Oy and that Dr. Anderson, Professor of Chemistry in the 

 University of Glasgow, be invited to aid the author with his ad- 

 vice and assistance ; and the results presented in this report had 

 received his approval. 



Taking into consideration the nature of the objections which 

 had been made, it was considered to be of the greatest importance 

 at the outset to try to obtain the products produced synthetically 

 in the reaction in quantities which formed a much higher percent- 

 age of the quantities of substances employed in the reaction. To 

 this problem his past efforts have been directed, and they have 

 been completely successful. Instead of only obtaining, as previ- 

 ously, 7 grammes of organic sodium salts formed synthetically 

 from 100 grammes sodium, he has obtained 25 times tiiat amount, 

 or from 100 grammes sodium he has now succeeded in obtaining 

 175 grammes of sodium salts of acids formed synthetically. 



He gave in detail an account of the results of a large series of 

 experiments, which it would be impossible to render intelligible 

 unless given at length, for which we have not space. He found 

 that a larger amount of products was obtained by keeping a 

 stream of carbonic acid constantly passing through the apparatus. 



His conclusions were : — 



1. That where a current of dry carbonic acid is kept con- 

 stantly passing through absolute alcohol, which is in contact with 

 sodium amalgam containing about 2 per cent, of sodiunyfor every 

 150 grammes of sodium used in the reaction, at least 17ogramme3 

 of sodium salts formed synthetically are produced, about 35 

 grammes of which are the sodium salts of volatile acids, and the 

 remaining 140 grammes are the sodium salts of fixed acids. 



2. That the volatile acids do not consist entirely of formic 

 acid, but contain at least one acid of higher molecular weight. 



18G 



