218 On the Action of the Vegetable Acids on Alcohol. 
tact with alcohol, we put them at the same time in contact 
with that body and one of the highly concentrated mineral 
acids, we may then produce with the whole new combina- 
tions very remarkable in their nature, as I shall prove by 
the following experiments : 
Experiment 1.—I took 30 grammes of benzoic acid, 
which I dissolved in 60 grammes of alcohol ; [ introduced 
the solution into a tubulated retort, and I added 15 gram- 
mes of concentrated muriatic acid; afterwards, having 
adapied a tubulated bell-glass to the neck of the retort and 
a bent tuhe to the bell-glass, I proceeded to distillation, 
and I ceased when it was two-thirds finished. 
Throughout the whole course of the operation, nothing 
but atmospheric air was extricated, and scarcely any traces 
of muriatic ether. The first portions of the product di- 
stilled were merely alcohol ; but the'last portions contained 
a peculiar substance, which could be separated from it by 
means of water: there was a good deal of this matter at 
the bottom of the retort, where it was deposited upon cool- 
ing; and as it was covered by a mixture of alcohol, water, 
muriatic acid, and benzoic acid, I purified it by decantation 
and by washing it with warm water, in which but very 
little of it was dissolved. When thus purified, it was yel- 
lowish, a little heavier than water, pungent, fusible at the 
temperature of 25° or 30°, volatile at about 80°, acid, 
oleaginous, almost insoluble in cold water, less insoluble in 
boiling water, from which it was precipitated upon cooling; 
and very soluble in alcohol, from which we might precipi- 
tate it by water. It evidently contained the benzore acid, 
which gave it the property of reddening turnsole. When 
brought to the neutral state by an alkaline solution, it was 
white, always pungent, and always odoriferous ; it con- 
stantly possessed most of the foregoing properties, and be- 
sides it was perfectly liquid at the ordinary temperature : 
finally, when shaken for a long time with a solution of 
caustic potash, it disappeared without any gas being extri- 
cated; and when this solution was examined, no trace of 
muriatic acid was found in it, and, in fact, nothing was 
procured from it but benzoic acid and alcohol. This 
substance, therefore, which exhibited itself as an oleaginous 
one, and in which there was apparently no acid, is formed 
of alcohol and benzoic acid in a particular state of combi- 
nation: nevertheless we could not obtain either, by distilling 
alcoho] and benzoic acid together a great number of times, 
or by precipitating by means of water a solution of benzoic 
acid in alcohol, or by strongly concentrating this oluiee 
an 
