OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 1G9 



the best solvent for it. Neither sulphuric, nitric, nor hydrochloric 

 acid has any apparent action on it, whether cold or hot. 



As has been already stated, the alcoholic mother liquors from the 

 crystallization of the bromdiuitroresorciue diethylether yielded on 

 evaporation a semi-liquid mass of most uninviting properties in con- 

 siderable quantity ; but although we have given much time to the 

 study of this product, we are unable to make any definite statement in 

 regard to its nature, and have not thought it worth while to postpone 

 the printing of this paper until we could overcome the difficulties in 

 its purification, as it does not lie in the direct line of our research, the 

 principal object of which has been reached by our work on the brom- 

 dinitroresorcine diethylether and its derivatives. "We think it well, 

 however, to give a brief statement of our work on this secondary 

 product, since we have succeeded in isolating a crystalline substance 

 from this viscous mixture by a process of liquation, which we think 

 will prove of value to those chemists who have similar mixtures to 

 deal with. The viscous mass after standing for some weeks solidified, 

 but even then was deposited from all its solutions in its original oily 

 condition, and as thei*efore it could not be crystallized directly we pro- 

 ceeded as follows. Having found that about one quarter of it melted 

 at 50"-60°, we placed it on several layers of filter paper in a dish 

 heated to about 70° by means of a water bath, and allowed it to stand 

 at this temperature for several days, renewing the filter paper as it was 

 necessary, and toward the end of the process applying a gentle pres- 

 sure. The less fusible residue thus obtained could now be crystallized 

 from alcohol, and yielded a small quantity of a substance melting near 

 170°, which we took to be impure bromdinitroresorcine diethylether, 

 but the amount was so small that we could not recrystallize it often 

 enough to raise the melting point to the proper temperature, 184°. 

 The principal part of this less fusible portion melted in the neighbor- 

 hood of 150°, and proved to be a mixture which, to judge by the 

 melting point, was the same as an abnormal product occasionally 

 obtained from the process for making bromdinitroresorcine diethyl- 

 ether instead of that substance, although we could find no difference in 

 the conditions of the process from those when it gave the normal 

 result. We have not succeeded in separating this mixture into its 

 components, as after several unsuccessful experiments the amount re- 

 maining at our disposal was too small to continue with any prospect of 

 success the crystallizations, which seemed to purify it very slowly, as 

 they had but little effect on the melting point. Some analyses of the 

 mixture showed that it contained less carbon and more bromine than 

 bromdinitroresorcine diethylether. 



