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Chemistry. — "On substances, winch possess more than one stable 

 liquid state, and on the phenomena observed in anisotropous 

 liquids." By Dr. F. M. Jaeger. (Communicated by Prof. 

 Franchimont). 



§ J. The compounds now investigated belong to the series of fatty 

 cholesterol-esters, which were the subject of a recent communication 1 ). 

 They are intended to supplement the number of the synthetic esters, 

 studied previously and include: Cholesterol-Heptylate, Nonylate, 

 Laurate, Myristate, Palmitate and Stearate. The Palmitic ester, as 

 is well known, is also important from a physiological point of view, 

 as it occurs constantly in blood-serum accompanied by the Oleate 

 m.p. (43° C.) 2 ). 



I have prepared these compounds by melting together equal parts 

 by weight of pure cholesterol and tatty acid, and purifying by frac- 

 tional crystallisation from mixtures of ether and alcohol, or ethyl 

 acetate and ether. The details will be published later on in a more 

 elaborate paper in the "Recueii". The substances were regarded as 

 pure, when their characteristic temperature-limits and the typical 

 transformations occurring therein, remained the same in even parti- 

 cular, even after another rcervstallisation, whilst also the solid phase, 

 when examined microscopically, did not appear to contain any 

 heterogenous components. 



Most of these esters were obtained in the form of very flexible, 

 tabular crystals of great lustre and resembling fish-scales; some of 

 them, such as the heptylate and the laurate, crystallise in long, hard 

 needles. 



The investigation showed, that most of these esters of the higher 

 fatty acids possess three stable liquid phases. Whereas, in the first 

 terms of the series one at least of these anisotropous phases was 

 labile in regard to the isotropous fusion, all three are now stable 

 under the existing circumstances, although sometimes definite, irre- 

 versible transitions may still occur. It is a remarkable fact, that the 

 stearate again exhibits an analogy with the lower terms, as it appears 

 that only labile liquid-anisotropous phases may occur, or else none 

 at all. A relation and similarity between the initial and final terms 



i) F. M. Jaeger, These Proc. 1906 ; Rec. d. Trav. d. China, d. Pays-Bas, T. 

 XXIV, p. 334-351. 



2) K. Hürthle, Z. f. physiol. Chem. 21. 331. (1895); The blood serums of: 

 iran, horse, ox, sheep, hog and dog were investigated. 



