58 M.H. Limpricht on the Conversion of Aldehydes into Alcohols. 
of ammonia on monochloracetic ether, and also by the action of 
dry ammonia on monochlorinated chloride of acetyle. 
Limpricht has recently * given a preliminary notice of a reac- 
tion which supplies a link in a remarkable series of transforma- 
tions, and shows that it is possible to convert certain acids into 
the corresponding alcohols. 
By heating leucine, C!? H!8 NO4, in a retort over free flame, it 
melts at about 170°, and between 184° and 200° an oily liquid 
of an empyreumatic odour distils over, which solidities on cooling 
into a mass of soft foliaceous crystals. These are soluble im water, 
and treated with hydrochloric acid liberate carbonic acid. The 
hydrochloric acid solution was evaporated to dryness, extracted 
with absolute alcohol, the alcoholic solution shaken with caustic 
potash, on which an oily liquid separated out, which on reetifi- 
cation over solid potash proved to be amylamine. The prepa- 
ration of leucine from horn is not difficult, and in this way up- 
wards of an ounce of pure amylamine was obtained. The de- 
composition may be thus expressed :— 
cilz H!s NO#*# = clo H}s N ae 9CO?2 
Leucine. Amylamine. Carbonic acid. 
In the same way alanine, C° H7 NO?, the homologue of leucine, 
was found to give ethylamine, and there is little doubt that gly- 
cocoll, C4 H® NO4, would give methylamine. 
This opens out a way of transforming certain acids into their 
alcohols, for Piria has shown that by distilling the salts of cer- 
tain acids with formiates, aldehydes are obtained; these aldehydes 
give, as Strecker has found, when treated with hydrocyanic and 
hydrochloric acids, compounds such as levcine and alanine, 
which are homologous with glycocoll. Limpricht has now 
shown that ethylamine and amylamine can be prepared from 
alanine and leucine, and it has long been known that these 
bases give, when treated with nitrous acid, the nitrous ethers of 
alcohol and fusel oil, from which of course these latter substances 
may be formed. The various steps in the reaction in the case 
of alcohol will make this transformation clearer :— 
C4 H3 NaO* + C? H NaO*=C?* H* 0? + 2(NaO CO?) 
Acetate Formiate Aldehyde. Carbonate 
of soda. of soda. of soda. 
C4 H4 0?+ C? HN +2HO=Cé® H’ NO* 
Aldehyde. Hydrocyanic Alanine. 
acid. 
* Liebig’s Annalen, March 1857. 
