•2 AKT. 12— TOKUHEI KAMETAKA: 



oxidising the solid acid with potassium permanganate in an alkaline 

 solution, obtained, besides dihydrostearic acid, a product which 

 resembled satiric acid in many respects, but which he did not further 

 examine. Quite recently, L. Maquenne (Cotnpt. rend., 1902, 135, 

 696) has published a paper " On the solid acid from the oil of 

 Elœococca vernicia" in which he endeavoured to show that the com- 

 position of the acid is C 18 H 30 O 2 rather than C ]7 H 30 O 2 as given by Cloëz, 

 and that the acid must therefore be stereoisomers with linolenic acid. 

 He arrived at this conclusion merely from the analysis of the acid, 

 and stated that on account of the acid not forming any definite 

 derivatives, its composition cannot be established by indirect means, 

 his attempt to prepare the bromine additive product having failed. 



The present communication is a preliminary report of an in- 

 vestigation, begun in 1901 and .still in progress, which has for its 

 object the determination of the composition of the acids of the oil by 

 studying their oxidation and bromine additive products. 



Although the work is still incomplete, it is desirable, in view of 

 the appearance of Maquenne's paper, that the results should at once 

 be published. A bromine additive product having the formula 

 Cj 8 H 32 2 Br 4 was prepared without any difficulty from the mixture of 

 acids produced by saponifying the oil, and from the recrystallised solid 

 acid were isolated oxidation products having the formula' C ]8 H 32 (OH) 4 Q 2 

 and Cj 8 H 34 (OH) 2 2 , but no derivatives of either .of the acids ■( ', 7 H 30 O 2 

 or Ci 8 H 80 O 2 could be obtained. 11 If the acid C, s II :ill ( )., had been present 

 in the mixture, as is asserted by Maquenne, the oxidation product, 

 Cj 8 H 30 (OH) a Ü 2 , might have been expected, and should have been 

 obtained in the course of a systematic separation of the products of 

 oxidation (see experimental part). The principal acids of the oil 



* In confirmation of the statement that no hexahromide can be obtained, see Walker and 

 VTarburton in the Analyst, 1902, 27 238. 



