156 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



respecting the vegetables which produce the Japanese and Brazilian 

 wax, and as to the mode in which they are extracted ; it may per- 

 haps be found whether this oxidizement depends on the nature of 

 the plant, or merely on that of the organ which produces the wax, or 

 on the time of collecting it. — L'Institut, No. 259. 



AMILEN. OIL OF POTATOES. 



M. Auguste Cahours on considering the numbers derived from the 

 composition and density of the vapour of this oil, was induced to 

 believe that it is a true alcohol, isomorphous [isomeric ?] with com- 

 mon alcohol, pyroxilic spirit and ethal : he therefore undertook a 

 series of experiments to verify these hypotheses ; and he conceives 

 that the oil of potatoes, and the compounds derived from it, contain 

 a radical C'" H^^*^ which may be readily separated, and to which he 

 gives the name of Amilen. 



When oil of potatoes is repeatedly distilled with anhydrous phos- 

 phoric acid, a colourless, oily, very limpid liquid is obtained, which 

 boils at about 320° Fahr. ; this is shown by analysis to be a true 

 carburetted hydrogen, of the same composition as olefiant gas and 

 methylen, and differing from them only in the state of condensation 

 of its elements. The numbers deduced from analysis, and the de- 

 termination of the density of its vapour, give C^° H*" as its natural 

 formula, which represent four volumes of vapour. It thei-efore pre- 

 sents an anomaly which does not attend either olefiant gas or me- 

 thylen ; and whilst in the alcohols which correspond to these car- 

 burets, four volumes of vapour are formed of four volumes of vapour 

 of carburetted hydrogen, and four volumes of vapour of water, this 

 new alcohol contains only two volumes of vapour of carburetted hy- 

 drogen and four volumes of the vapour of water. — L'Institut, 

 No. 260. 



ACTION OF CHLORIDE OF ZINC UPON ALCOHOL. 

 M. Dumas has read a report respecting the memoir of M. Masson 

 on the above subject. The author dissolves chloride of zinc in 

 alcohol, and subjects the mixture to distillation, receiving the products 

 in different portions. When the liquor boils, it yields at first alcohol ; 

 but when the point of ebullition is a little raised, and reaches about 

 284°, it 5'ields sulphuric tCther. Thus the chloride of zinc acts 

 upon alcohol, exactly like concentrated sulphuric acid, and these two 

 substances occasion the production of aether precisely at the same 

 temperature. On continuing the process, an oil appears which per- 

 fectly recalls the characters of that known by the name of sweet oil 

 oficine. It forms at about 320° Fahr., that is to say, very nearly under 

 the same circumstances which occasion its formation when prepared 

 from sulphuric acid and alcohol. It is further observable that the 

 aether formed is accompanied with a certain quantity of water, and 

 the oil which distils with a considerable quantity. These phseno- 

 mena also attend the reaction of sulphuric acid upon alcohol ; and 

 M. Masson has further ascertained that no bydrochloric acid is 



• The original symbols are preserved unaltered. 



