128 Fritzsche on Tsonitrophenic Acid. 



Febiiiary, 1859 ; and as the part of the Phil. Trans, cited was 

 not pubhshcd until three months afterwards — or, more exactly, on 

 Monday, May 16, 1859, — it is plain that the facts of the case 

 have been inverted in the pages of the Philosophical Magazine. 

 This point is of the more impoi'tance, as Sir Charles Lyell 

 immediately proceeds to say, at the end of his first, and begin- 

 ning of his second paragraph, that in the ' Report ' so printed 

 by the Admiralty, i. e., according to him, subsequently to 

 May 16, 1859, a "chapter on geology and 'volcanic theories' 

 is introduced/' " which did not form part of the original Report 

 as published by the Royal Society in the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions for 1858." In answer to which it may be enough to state 

 that the " original Report " was presented by the Admiralty, 

 through the Astronomer Royal, to the Royal Society nearly ttvo 

 years earlier than the date indicated, or on June 2, 1857, and 

 contained a chapter on " Geology ;" also, that all the chapters 

 were revised on going through the press. 



I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, 



Your obedient Servant, 



C. PiAzzi Smyth. 



XXIV. Chemical Notices from Foreign Journals. By E. Atkin- 

 son, Ph.D., F.C.S., Teacher of Physical Science in Cheltenham 

 College. 



[Continued from vol. xvii. p. 430.] 



FRITZSCHE* hasinvestigatednitrophenicacid,C'^HS(NO^)0^ 

 (nitrophenole). It is obtained by distilling a mixture of 2 

 parts of pure hydrate of phcnyle, 100 parts of water, and 3 parts of 

 strong nitric acid. The nitrophenic acid passes over in the form 

 of oily drops, which crystallize on cooling ; subsequently an 

 aqueous solution distils over, which, when cooled to 0°, also de- 

 posits crystals. The 'acid, when purified by redistillation and 

 crystallization from alcohol, is of a pale yellow colour with an 

 aromatic odour. It melts at 45° and boils at 214°. It is readily 

 soluble in alcohol, ether, and benzole. 



The nitrophenates, C'^ H" (NO") M 0^, arc of a scarlet-red or 

 orange colour, according to the quantity of water of crystalliza- 

 tion which they contain. 



The residue remaining in the retort from the preparation of 

 nitrophenic acid contains a new acid isomeric with nitrophenic 

 acid, and to which Fritzsche gives the name isonifrophenic acid. 

 This is easily obtained by slightly modifying the above propor- 



* Bulletin de St. Petersburg, vol. xvi. p. 11. Liebig's Annalen, May 

 1859. 



