660 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



jjreenish flame ; it can be distilled at 36° C. (Bar=752 mm.) without 

 decomposition, but if a few drops are overheated in a test-tube it ex- 

 plodes violently. The liquid is very sensitive to sunlight, boiling vigor- 

 ously a few minutes after exposure, and exploding. This action is not 

 accomplished by the heat rays. Even in diffuse light, ethyl hypochlo- 

 rite can be preserved only a few hours, eventually decomposing without 

 ex])losion. 



It acts very energetically on ammonia, phenol, aniline, and other or- 

 ganic bodies. Mixed with bromhydric acid it sets bromine free, and al- 

 cohol forms. The body was analyzed indirectly by determining the 

 amount of iodine a given weight set free, the iodine being estimated 

 volumetrically by sodium hyposulphite. 



The author i^lans further researches on analogous bodies. {Ber. d. d. 

 chem. Ges., xviii, 1767.) 



On 1 he Decomposition of the Terpenes hy Heat (by William A. Tilden). — 

 The author shows that experiments stated lead to the conclusion that 

 the terpenes do not belong to the aromatic series, and are not formed 

 on the benzene type. M. Berthelot, commenting on Tilden's paper, re- 

 marks he regards it of importance in confirming views which he 

 (Berthelot) had announced fifteen years before. {Ann. chim. phys. [d], 

 V, 120.) 



On Derivatives of Rexaoxyhenzene and their Relation to Croconic and 

 Rhodizonic Acid (by R. Nietzki and Th. Benckiser). — Starting with nitran 

 ilic acid, the authors have obtained a series of interesting bodies ; a 

 l)artial reduction of nitrauilic acid yielded nitro-amido tetraoxybenzene, 

 and a more complete reduction gave diaraidotetraoxybenzene ; the lat 

 ter decomposes under certain conditions, forming a body having the 

 formula CsHieOu, which by reduction with tin and hydrochloric acid 

 yielded the long-sought hexaoxybenzene C6(OH)6. This body proved 

 to be identical with the trihydrocarboxylic acid cbtained by Lerch from 

 the action of potassium on carbon monoxide. On boiling the substance 

 C6Hi60i4, with water, it decomposed, with evolution of carbon dioxide, 

 and yielded a solution which, neutralized with potash, gave on concen- 

 tration orange yellow acicular crystals of potassium croconate C5K2OS, 

 first prepared in 1825 by Gmelin from the black residues of the manu- 

 facture of potassium according to the method of Wohler and Brunner. 

 From these facts it appears that Liebig, in his researches on the action 

 of potassium on carbon monoxide, actually accomplished the direct syn- 

 thesis of benzene derivatives from purely inorganic substances in the 

 simplest manner. 



This synthesis was successfully repeated by the authors, who on 

 tained, besides potassium croconate, the rhodizonate long before discov 

 ered by Berzelius, Wohler, and Heller. The latter salt was also ob 

 tained direct from dioxydichinoyl-sodium, thus establishing the identity 



