OF THE FIXED OILS IN CONTACT WITH SITLPHUR. 369 



! 4-657 grains of tlie most volatile oil gave 

 1 2-688 . . . carbonic acid, and 

 5-127 ... water. 



15-501 grains of an oil less volatile than the preceding gave 

 15-762 . . . carbonic acid, and 

 6-292 ... water. 



! 4-191 grains of another portion of oil gave 

 12-185 . . . carbonic acid, and 

 4-720 ... water. 



Which correspond to the following results per cent. ; 



All these oils, when treated with fuming nitric acid, yielded an abundant 

 precipitate of the sulphate of barytas ; but as the results of the combustion were 

 not constant, no quantitative determination was made. 



The action of precipitants, however, upon this oil, afforded a more satisfac- 

 tory method of obtaining some of its constituents. It gives, with corrosive subli- 

 mate, a bulky white precipitate, and with bichloride of platinum, a yellow com- 

 pound, the characters of which vary slightly, according as it is prepared from the 

 more or less volatile portion of the oil. Nitrate of silver and acetate of lead, 

 mixed with the alcoholic solution of the oil, produce only a slight cloudiness, but 

 on boiling the solutions, the sulphurets of silver and lead are deposited. 



The Mercury Compound. In order to obtain this substance in the pure state, 

 the oil was dissolved in alcohol, and an alcoholic solution of corrosive sublimate 

 added. The precipitate which fell was collected on a filter, and washed with 

 ether, until the oil was thoroughly extracted, for which purpose a considerable 

 quantity of ether is requu-ed. It is then boiled with a large quantity of alcohol, 

 which dissolves a part of it, and the solution being filtered hot, allows the com- 

 pound to deposit, on cooling, in the pure state. It is then in the form of a white 

 crystalline powder, having a very fine pearly lustre, and exhibiting under the 

 microscope crystals of a very peculiar form. They are six-sided tables, two oppo- 

 site angles of which are rounded off, so as to give them a very close resemblance 

 to the section of a barrel. It possesses, even after long-continued washing with 

 ether, a peculiar slight sickening smell, which becomes more powerful on heating, 

 and its powder irritates the nose. It is insoluble in water, which moistens it 

 with difficulty. It requires several hundred times its weight of boiling alcohol 

 for solution, and is almost entirely deposited, on cooling, in microscopic crystals. 

 In ether, it is almost insoluble. When heated, it is decomposed with the evolu- 



