CHEMISTRY. 649 



The raw material formed a brownish- black, sticky mass, almost wholly 

 soluble in boiling benzine. On adding alcohol to the filtered solution 

 most of the paraffine precipitates and the oils remain in solution. By 

 treating the powdered ozokerite with ether nearly all the oily matters 

 and coloring matters are removed from the paraffine, and this may be 

 further purified by solution in benzine, boiliug with animal charcoal 

 and precipitation by alcohol. By repeating this process, shining white 

 crystals, having a definite melting point, were obtained, which the 

 authors name Lekene, from the island above referred to. Lekene has the 

 following properties : Melting point, 79°; sp. gr., 0.93917. Soluble in 

 124.3 parts of benzine at 15°, 1334.8 parts of chloroform at 16°, 9534 

 parts of alcohol at 16°, and 15257 parts of absolute acetic ether at 16° 

 C. It distills unaltered in vacuo, and hence may be obtained by this 

 process on a commercial scale. Nitric acid diluted with two volumes 

 of water scarcely attacks lekene at all ; fuming sulphuric acid converts 

 it quickly into a black, pulverulent mass. The analysis made gave fol- 

 lowing figures : C=85.23 per cent., H=14.72 per cent. It does not ap- 

 pear whether lekene belongs to the series C n H 2n , or C n H 2n+2 . The oil 

 extracted by ether from the ozokerite was purified by distillation in 

 vacuo and gave 86.13 per cent. 0. and 13.70 per cent. H. Its sp. gr.= 

 0.8450 at 18.5°. (Ber. d. chem. Gcs., xvi, 1547). 



Researches into the Nature of Resins. — Prof. Arthur Michael has in- 

 stituted an investigation into the action of aldehydes on phenols, 

 and arrives at the following conclusions: (1) Mixtures of aromatic 

 aldehydes and phenols are converted by mere traces of acids, more or 

 less rapidly, according to the acids used, into white resins; (2) the re- 

 sorcin-benzaldehyde resin is converted by the further action of dilute 

 acids into two crystalline compounds, one of which is isomeric with the 

 resin when the latter is dried at 100° C. ; (3) fixed alkalies and potas- 

 sium carbonate convert a mixture of resorcin and benzoic aldehyde into 

 a resin ; (4) the properties of the crystalline compound C 2 6H 2 o0 4 resem- 

 ble those of the so-called crystallizable resins. From its alkaline solu- 

 tion it is precipitated by acids in the form of a resin, which separates 

 in form of the original crystals from the alcoholic solution ; (5) the 

 above results make it extremely probable that the formation of at least 

 some of the resins in the vegetable world is due to aldehydes and phe- 

 nols coming in contact with the contents of the cells, as both of these 

 classes of compounds are undoubtedly among the products formed in 

 plant-life. (Am. Chem. Journ., v, 338.) 



Coniferin, the source of vanillin, has been found by Edmund O. von 

 Lippmann to exist in the woody fiber of the sugar-beet. It is believed 

 that the coniferin does not exist to any great amount ready formed in 

 the woody fiber, but that it is produced by the decomposition of lignin 

 in the process of extraction. Whether or not the sugar-beet will ever 

 become a commercial source of vanillin has not been determined. (Ber. 

 d. chem. Ges., xvi, 44.) 



