( 468 ) 
point (155°), and after the whole mass had turned to a thick liquid 
and no more carbon dioxide was evolved the product was dissolved 
in boiling water. The solution was acidified with sulphurie acid and 
distilled in a current steam. The distillate was shaken with ether, 
the etheral solution was dried and after the ether was evaporated, the 
residual valerie acid was rectified and its boiling point found to be 
174°—176°. The rotation of this was determined at [¢|p = —4’.3 
which corresponds with 25,8°/, -valeric acid. It made no difference 
whether the first or last fraction of the distillate was taken. 
The synthesis of /-valeric acid has, therefore, been much improved 
and it is possible to still further increase the yield of active acid by 
operating at still lower temperature as ] have observed that the acid 
salt of methylethylmalonic acid possesses even at 100° a fairly large 
decomposition tension. 
Amsterdam, Org. Chem. Lab. 
Chemistry. — “On the system pyridine and methyl vodide”” By 
Dr. A. H. W. Aten. (Communicated by Prof. Bakaurs RoozEBoom). 
Among the binary systems which have been studied up to the 
present in the gaseous, liquid and solid condition there are many in 
which occur chemical compounds formed from the two components. 
In most of those cases, those compounds possessed but little stability 
so that the conditions of formation and decomposition were situated 
within an easily attainable range of temperatures. 
In the case of the more stable chemical compounds, however, 
those conditions of gradual formation and decomposition are less 
easy to attain. Still, their study promises a clearer insight into the 
changes which a system undergoes when a chemical compound is 
formed therein, and in the systems which form very stable com- 
pounds; such a comparison can be made all the more readily at a 
lower temperature because the reaction velocities are then generally 
so reduced that the system can be studied at will in the presence 
or absence of the compound so that these two cases may be compared. 
A first example in which this could be at least partially attained 
is given by the system pyridine and methyl iodide. These two sub- 
stances are capable of forming a quaternary ammonium compound 
C,H,N.CH,I which possesses a fairly great stability. At 60° and 
higher temperatures this compound is rapidly formed in the mixtures 
of the two liquids; at the ordinary temperature this formation takes 
place rather slowly and exceedingly slowly on cooling. On cooling 
