426 Progress of Foreign Science. 
A separation took place ; the oil occupied then 125 measures, 
and the acid no more than 35 measures. The latter had con- 
sequently diminished by 45 measures, and the oil had acquired 
45 measures. Second experiment :—80 measures of the same 
oil were put to the remaining 35 measures of acetic acid, and 
after the mixture and separation, the oil occupied 115* mea- 
sures, and the acid was reduced to 5 measures. ‘Thus, this 
time, the 80 measures of oil had absorbed only 30 measures 
of acid. 
M. Vauquelin conceives, that if the oil has absorbed, this 
time, only 30 measures of acid, instead of 45, this depends pro- 
bably on the acid having become more watery, and thereby less 
fit for uniting with the oil. Hence 100 parts of the acetic acid 
employed for this experiment contain 6 parts which cannot 
combine with the oil. This residuum of acid had contracted a 
yellow colour ; its taste was still very acid, and its smell indi- 
cated that it contained much oil. In reality, when a drop of 
this acid was put in water, it was seen to fall to the bottom, 
and the oil separated from it and mounted to the surface. In 
this experiment, the acetic acid and oil have formed two com- 
pounds unequal in their proportions ; one, where there is much 
oil, and which floats above: another, where there is much acid 
and less oil. It appears, also, that 100 parts of oil of lavender 
can absorb 56 parts of acetic acid; but as the portion of acetic 
acid which remains, holds in solution a certain quantity of 
oil difficult to estimate, we may admit that 50 parts of the acid 
are required to saturate 100 of oil; that is, 1 volume of acid 
and 2 of oil. 
Third experiment.—To learn if water could separate the 
acetic acid from the oil, 50 parts of the combination richest in 
oil were taken, and 55 of water; they were agitated powerfully 
and long together ; after the separation, the volume of oil was 
found reduced to 35, and that of the water augmented by 15 
measures ; yet the oil was still acid. In fact, it contained 3 
parts of acetic acid. 20 parts of the same combination, being 
agitated with 80 measures of water, the oil after repose had 
lost 8, and the water had increased by the same quantity. In 
this experiment, the water had removed from the oil the whole 
of the acid which it contained, and had taken up a little of the 
oil itself, since the 20 parts of the combination contained 7.2 
of. acid, and since the oil had lost 8. 
When the acetic acid is pure, the oil absorbs it entirely ; 
but if it contain a certain quantity of water, were it only 5 per 
cent., there remains a portion which the oil cannot lay hold 
of; so that the portion of acetic acid which does not combine 
with the oil, contains necessarily a greater proportion of water, 
than it did before the operation. 
* It ought to be 110. 
