156 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



This investigation was begun in 1877 ; and, although it is not yet 

 completed, so many facts have accumulated that I have thought it 

 best to lay before the Academy the results already obtained. 



Different portions of this research I have carried on with Mr. 0. R. 

 Jackson and Mr. C. F. Mabery, assistants in this laboratory, and with 

 Mr. W. Z. Bennett. In my description of our results, I shall make 

 plain the share which each of these gentlemen has had in the work. 



My most sincere thanks are due to Dr. Squibb for the generous 

 supply of material, without which it would have been impossible for 

 me to have undertaken this investigation. 



FURFUROL ONE OF THE PRODUCTS OF THE DrT DISTILLATION 



OF Wood. 



Although the products formed in the dry distillation of wood have 

 repeatedly been made the subject of investigation, I can find in the 

 literature of the subject but little reference to the presence of furfurol 

 among them. That furfurol is thus formed is asserted by Gmelin * 

 on the authority of Volkel, but a close examination of Volkel's origi- 

 nal papers f fails to show any sufficient foundation for the assertion. 

 Although Volkel had already shown that furfurol was formed in the dry 

 distillation of sugar, and had established its presence by analysis,! in his 

 subsequent work upon the dry distillation of wood he seems to have 

 based his conclusions solely upon qualitative tests by no means conclu- 

 sive. Although he makes a number of general statements concerning 

 the presence of furfurol among the products he obtained, I can find 

 nothing more definite than is contained in the following passage.§ 



After describing the extraction of a yellowish brown oil from the 

 pyroligneous acid by means of ether he proceeds : " In Kalilauge lost 

 sich das Oel unter Entwicklung eines betaubenden Geruchs auf, der 

 von einer geringen Menge einer organischen Basis herriihrt, well er 

 auf Zusatz von Saure wieder verschwindet. Die dunkel gefarbte 

 alkalische Losung triibt sich in kurzer Zeit durch Ausscheiden eines 

 gelbbraunen Korpers, der Pyroxanthin enthalt. Aus der abfiltrirten 

 noch stark gefarbten alkalischen Fliissigkeit wird durch verdiinnte 

 Schwefelsaure ein anderer brauner Korper abgeschieden, und zugleich 



* Gmelin's Handbuch, vii. 599 ; Suppl., ii. 972. 



t Poggendorff's Annalen, Ixxxii. 496 ; Ixxxiii. 272 and 557 ; Ann. Chem. a. 

 Pharm., Ixxxvi. Q6. 



J Ann. Chem. u. Pharm., Ixxxv. 59. 

 § Ibid., Ixxxvi. 83. 



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