[Abieten. Liquid hydrocarbon, obtained by distillation from the 

 resin of Pinus Sabiniana. It is a colourless oil of a penetrating 

 orange-like odour, of 06 94 sp. gr. at 15°, boiling at 101°. Dis- 

 solves very little in water, in five parts alcohol of 95%. It 

 forms no compound with hydrochloric acid gas, and is slowly 

 decomposed by warm nitric acid. It absorbs a great quantity of 

 chlorine, and becomes thick. The A. is an excellent solvent for 

 fats and volatile oils, except castor oil, though the latter dissolves 

 two-thirds of its own volume of Abieten. Canada balsam dis- 

 solves two parts Abieten, Peru balsam one-fifth its volume. 

 Wenzel.] 



Al)ietic Acidt The constitution of colophony, i.e., of the 

 resinous substance exudated from coniferous trees by incisions of 

 the stem, and which is fused afterwards in order to volatilise the 

 essential oils, is, according to Maly, materially difierent, and 

 especially much less complicated than it was heretofore considered. 

 It is not a mixture of several isomeric acids (sylvic, pinic, pimaric 

 acids = C40 H30 O4 ), besides indifferent resins, but consists in the 

 main (more than 90%) of a peculiar acid in the anhydrous form, 

 named by the author Abiotic acid, and composed according to the 

 formula Cgg H62 Og . It is a bibasic acid, and crystallises slowly 

 from a solution of colophony in common alcohol (of about 70%), 

 as hydrate = Css H62 08 + 2 HO in crusty masses. The anhydrous 

 acid fuses at 100°, the hydrate not imder 165°, without losing 

 water; and even in higher temperatures it does not lose more 

 water, until, through long-continued heating, it assumes a yellow 

 or brown colour and becomes decomposed. The so-called sylvic 

 acid was imperfectly purified abietic acid, the pinic acid nothing 

 but genuine colophony, and pimaric acid appears to be nothing 

 else but abietic acid. 



Absillthin = C40 H28 Og . The bitter ingredient of Artemisia 

 Absinthium, Precipitate the decoction with tannic acid, mix the 

 washed precipitate with oxyd of lead, dry, treat with alcohol, 

 digest the solution with animal charcoal and evaporate. The 

 remaining Absinthin has the appearance of slightly yellow drops 

 of oil, but solidifies to a hard, indistinctly crystallised mass. It 

 is friable to a powder, not influenced by the atmosphere, neutral, 

 not aromatic, of a very bitter taste, fuses at 120° to 125°; dis- 

 solves very little in cold and sparingly in hot water, readily in 

 alcohol, ether and alkalies; yields no sugar with diluted acids, and 

 dissolves in concentrated sulphuric acid with a brown colour, which 

 changes slowly to a green-blue and becomes dark-blue by a few 

 drops of water, but separates grey flakes by an excess of the 

 latter. 



Acetic Acid = C4 H3 O3 + HO. Discovered in the juice of 

 many plants, and especially of trees. Its properties are well 



