ELISIIA MITCIHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 21 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF BORACIC ACID AS AN 

 IMPURITY IN CAUSTIC ALKALIES. 



BY F. P. VENABLE and J. S. CALLISON. 



Ill the course of a research upon the distribution of boracic 

 acid in the ashes of plants, it was decided to make some quanti- 

 tative estimations of the boracic acid present. The reagents to 

 be used were first themselves tested for boracic acid, and, much 

 to our surprise, no sample of the caustic alkalies could be pro- 

 cured free from it. Specimens coming from some of the most 

 noted manufacturers, Schuchardt, Marquart, and TrommsdorflP, 

 purified by alcohol or by baryta, w^ere found to contain boracic 

 acid, and sometimes in decidedly appreciable amounts. No 

 quantitative determination has been made, but, judging frotii 

 the known delicacy of the qualitative tests, the amount must have 

 often exceeded 0.1 per cent., and was probably much greater. 



As the caustic alkalies, especially potassium hydroxide, are 

 frequently used in the methods for the quantitative determina- 

 tions of boracic acid,* this presence of it as an impurity may be 

 a serious source of error. The knowledge of it is important on 

 other grounds as well. 



*See, for instance, Morse & Burton, Amer. Chem. Jour. X, 154. Ztschr. and Chem. 

 25, 202. 



Univeksity of North Carolina, 

 May, 1890. 



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