386 M. Heinz on two New Series of Acids. 
The monochloracetic acid was prepared by Hoffmann’s method, 
which was found very convenient. A quantity of sodium was 
then dissolved in anhydrous methylic alcohol, and a correspond- 
ing quantity of chloracetic acid added. The action was very 
energetic, each addition of the acid being attended with a hissing 
sound. When the action was complete, the mixture was heated 
for some hours to a temperature of 100°; the-alcohol was then di- 
stilled off, hydrochloric acid added in slight excess, the mixture 
rendered feebly alkaline with soda, and evaporated to dryness. 
This mass was exhausted with alcohol, the alcohol distilled off, 
and the aqueous solution of the residue mixed with sulphate 
of zinc and evaporated to dryness. On treating this mass with 
alcohol a zinc-salt was dissolved out, which was deposited from 
the alcoholic solution in large, colourless, acute rhombic octa- 
hedra. The analyses gave for the formula of this salt, dried in 
the air, C6 H® ZnO®°4+2HO: the water is given off at 100°C, 
To obtain the free acid from this salt, it was dissolved in water, 
the solution saturated with sulphuretted hydrogen, and filtered 
from the sulphide of zinc; on evaporating the filtrate, acid 
vapours were given off ; it was accordingly distilled. The tempe- 
rature gradually rose to 198°, at which point it remained con- 
stant. What now passed over consisted of the free acid, which 
is a colourless viscid liquid of the sp. gr. 1:18. It has an 
acid, but not unpleasant taste; its boiling-point is 198°; it is 
very soluble in water, and readily attracts moisture from the 
atmosphere. It burns, when it is inflamed, with a blue non-fuli- 
ginous flame. By saturating the acid with carbonate of zine, 
filtermg and evaporating, a zinc-salt was obtained identical with 
that obtained at first. 
The acid, though isomeric with lactic acid, differs widely from 
it, and also from sarcolactic acid. The new acid is volatile; its 
zinc-salt crystallizes readily in large crystals, and is very soluble. 
Its potash and baryta salts readily crystallize ; its lime-salt does 
not crystallize, and is easily soluble in water; and lastly, the 
silver salt melts at 100°, and does not fuse. In all these points 
there is a wide difference from the corresponding compounds of 
the lactic acids. 
The acid is derived from glycolic acid by the substitution of 
methyle. Glycolic acid is bibasic, and, according to Socoloff and 
Strecker, contains two atoms of replaceable hydrogen, one of 
which is more readily replaced by a metal, and the other by an 
acid radical. If this acid were glycolic acid in which the basie 
hydrogen is replaced by methyle, it would have a constitution 
analogous to that of the ordinary ethers; it would be, in fact, a 
glycolate of methyle, and would yield, when treated with an 
alkali, an alkaline glycolate and free methylic alcohol. But 
