350 



Somewhat less split off glycerine was always found than corre- 

 sponds with y = 7". The deviation is slight, but on an average more 

 than the error of observation. In § 3 the importance of this will be 

 furtlier set forth. 



As, on account of the setting in of (he equilibrium, only a small 

 region could be examined in the saponificatiou, it was tried to 

 complete the found curve by starting from equivalent quantities of 

 glycerine and laurinic acid, and esterizing this in strong sulphuric 

 acid. The procedure was here quite identical with the preceding 

 case, instead of 5 grams of trilaurine 4.7U5 grams of laurinic acid 

 and 0.710 gram of glycerine wei-e now weighed. 



The results obtained in this way are collected in table 3 (curve 

 B of the figure). 



It appears that in the esterification always more free glycerine is 

 present than corresponds with g = 7'', and the more as the esteri- 

 fication has proceeded less far. 



It is now the question : how are the deviations found in the 

 saponification and the esterification, to be accounted for? 



TABLE 3. 

 Esterification of laurinic acid with glycerine. 



§ 3. Shortly after I had obtained the results recorded in tables 

 2 and 3 I imagined the question to be as follows: In virtue of the 

 fact that secondary esters are on the whole more slowly saponified 

 than primary ones it is natural to expect that the middle ester group 

 of the triglyceride will also be slower to react than the two others. 

 We may then expect in the saponification that g <^ T^. If on the 

 other hand laurinic acid with glycerine is esterized, the secondary 

 alcohol group will probably also in this case react more slowly. 



