M. Fittig on Acetone. 117 
large transparent quadratic plates. They contain water of cry- 
stallization, and even by pressing between paper partially lose their 
transparency. Their composition was found to be C® H'* O8: Fittig 
considers that the body is an isomeric modification of acetone, the 
rational formula being C® H®O?+6aq. The crystals gradually 
lose water when exposed to the air, and more rapidly in vacuo 
over sulphuric acid ; but it was impossible to determine this loss 
exactly, owing to the volatilization of a portion of the sub- 
stance. That the substance was formed from the decomposition 
of acetone, and not from the crystallization from water, was 
proved by the fact that when some of the erystallime mass was 
pressed and crystallized from anhydrous ether, the crystals formed 
had the same composition. 
Fittig further examined the action of caustic lime on acetone. 
Well-burned marble was covered with acetone, and left in closed 
vessels for some time ; the dry yellowish mass was then distilled. 
On rectifying the distillate, it was found to consist of two bodies, 
of which one distilled below 150° and the other above 200°. By 
fractionally distilling the first of these a body was obtained which 
boiled at 131°-5, and in its analyses and properties was found 
to be identical with Kane’s oxide of mesityle or mesitic ether, 
C2 H!°Q2. It is a colourless transparent oil, smelling like pep- 
permint, and with a caustic taste. It burns with a lustrous 
flame, and is not soluble in water, but readily so in ether and 
alcohol. Oxide of mesityle is converted into a resin by the action 
of nitric acid, and with chlorine it yields a substitution product. 
The other body produced by the action of caustic lime, was 
found to be partially decomposed by distillation. The analysis 
of a specimen gave results agreeing with the formula C!* H'* G?. 
Hence it might be formed from 3 atoms of acetone with the eli- 
mination of 4 atoms of water. It is isomeric with phorone* ; 
and in a subsequent investigation} Fittig found that it was iden- 
tical with that substance. The body from acetone, by treatment 
with auhydrous phosphoric acid, yielded cumole, C'S H'?, from 
which, by oxidation with nitric acid, nitrobenzoic acid, 
C'4 HS (NO*) 04, 
was obtained,—a result interesting as showing that from acetic 
acid, amember of the fatty acid series, a derivative of benzoic 
acid, a member of the aromatic acid series may be obtained. 
The action of sulphuric acid and of alkalies on acetone appears 
to be identical, giving rise to the formation of a series of bodies 
which are acetone minus water, as is seen from the list. 
* Phil. Mag. vol. xii. p. 188. 
{ Liebig’s Annalen, December 1859, 
