M. Scherer on Xanthine and Leucine. 2138 
RE ee HOt C204, 
= hah pial, hag ag 
Carbophenylic acid . Hl Of CFO, 
This view is supported by the well-known fact that salicylic acid 
decomposes, when heated with powdered glass, into phenylic 
alcohol and carbonic acid. 
Kolbe and Lautemann* have recently effected the synthesis 
of this acid from phenylic alcohol and carbonic acid. It is not 
formed when carbonic acid is passed into sodium-phenylic 
* alcohol, C!2 H®NaO?; but when carbonic acid is passed into 
phenylic alcohol while sodium is being dissolved in it, the three 
bodies unite with liberation of hydrogen to form salicylate of 
soda. On neutralizing this product with hydrochloric acid, and 
boiling with water to expel excess of phenylic alcohol, salicylic 
acid pure and in tolerable quantity is obtained. 
By analogous methods these chemists hope to obtain from 
hydrate of cresyle and hydrate of thymole the corresponding 
acids, and from bisulphide of carbon and hydrated oxide of phe- 
nyle the compound 
cz ee C? S4 (Phenylxanthogenic acid). 
In some recent experiments with flesh, Scherer + has found 
that xanthine { is contained in muscle, and also in the pancreas. 
In the former it exists along with hypoxanthine, which he has 
shown to be identical with Strecker’s sarcine; in the pancreas 
it exists along with guanine. The pancreas contains about 
0:0166 per cent. of xanthine, and 0:01223 of guanine. It is 
accordingly a better source for xanthine than flesh, which only 
contains 0-003 per cent. 
Scherer has also observed that leucine is contained in the pan- 
creas, and in such large quantities that the latter is the most valu- 
able source for it. The following experiments will show how it is 
obtained therefrom. Twenty pounds of finely chopped pancreas 
were boiled in water for about five minutes, the mixture filtered, 
and the residue treated with hot water. The filtrate was pre- 
cipitated by baryta water, filtered, and the filtrate evaporated on 
the water-bath with the addition of acetate of copper. The pre- 
cipitate formed, which consisted of xanthine and guanine in com- 
bination with copper, was filtered off. On saturating this fil- 
trate with sulphuretted hydrogen, and evaporation, the liquor 
yielded about six ounces of pure leucine containing mere traces 
* Liebig’s Annalen, January 1860. + Ibid. December 1859. 
{ Phil. Mag. vol. xviii. p. 135. 
Phil. Mag. 8. 4. Vol. 19. No. 126. March 1860. Q 
