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XXVI.—Researches on Chinoline and its Homologues. By C. GREVILLE WILLIAMS, 
Assistant to Dr AnpErson, University of Glasgow. 
(Read 7th April 1856.) 
Twenty-two years have now elapsed, since Runes first published his remark_ 
able experiments on coal naphtha,* and it would, perhaps, be difficult to instance 
any chemical investigation which has formed the point of departure of a greater 
number of researches. When we consider the vast quantity of bodies which have, 
first and last, been obtained from coal-tar, it might appear that little more 
remained to be done,—that the mine was exhausted,—but so far from this being 
the case, the discovery of one substance has only served to pave the way for the 
isolation of others. 
Among the bodies examined by Runas, there was one which apparently pos- 
sessed comparatively few features of interest ; indeed its very name (the first syl- 
lable derived from 2<vxé;) was intended to express its supposed inability to produce 
coloured reactions, a feature which, in the chemistry of the time, militated greatly 
against its claims to notice. I have used the expression “ supposed inability,” be- 
cause I shall show further on, that this substance is capable, under certain condi- 
tions, of affording extremely brilliant colorations. Eventually, Gernarprt,}+ by 
acting on quinine, cinchonine, and strychnine, with hydrate of potash, obtained the 
_ samebody. The first chemist who succeeded in procuring any of its compounds in 
__ astate of tolerable purity was Hormann, whose analysis of the platinum salt is 
_ very nearly exact. But, at the time of that analysis, he was of opinion that the 
7 products obtained from coal and chinoline were essentially different, an opinion 
which he subsequently retracted. In the mean time, the alkaloid, as obtained 
- from cinchonine was examined by Bromets{ and Laurent,) their results, how- 
__ ever, not elucidating the composition of the basic fluid obtained in the manner 
_ alluded to. 
Some time since, I undertook the examination of the bases produced by de- 
_ structive distillation of the bituminous shale of Dorsetshire, and found them to 
q be identical with those from bone-oil.|| I now began to see the great probability 
that all processes of destructive distillation of nitrogenous matter at very elevated 
=, * Poccenp. Annal., Bd. xxxi., p. 65 und 513; und Bd. xxxii., p. 308 und 328. 
{ Revue Scientif., x., 186. Compt. Rend, des Tray. de Chim. 1845, p. 30. 
? Liesie’s Annal., Bd. lii., p. 130; and Ann. der Chem, u. Pharm. li., 130. 
§ Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. [3] xxx., 368. 
|| Quart. Jour. Chem. Soc. Lond., July 1854. 
VOL. XXI. PART III. 5K 
