Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 151 



I. II. 



Silica 49-40 50-04 



Alumina 1970 20-16 



Peroxide of iron .... -80 '68 



Lime 1-50 1-46 



Potash 1-50 1-27 



Soda traces 



Magnesia '27 '23 



Oxide of manganese . traces traces 



Water 25-67 26 00 



98-84 99 84 

 Ann. de. Ch. et de Phys., Novembre 1847. 



ON THE ACTION OF CHLORINE ON BENZOATE OF POTASH. 

 BY M. SAINT-EVRE. 



When a continuous current of chlorine is passed into a solution 

 of benzoate of potash rendered strongly alkaline, there is produced, 

 after the lapse of some time, an abundant disengagement of carbonic 

 acid ; and chloride of potassium is also formed. The character of 

 this reaction is, then, a combustion of a part of the carbon of the 

 benzoic acid, and consequently a substance must be formed, the 

 molecule of which is more simple. Analysis fully confirms this con- 

 clusion. The new substance is an acid which is precipitated in the 

 state of a potash salt ; this salt purified, and then decomposed by 

 sulphuric acid, yields the acid in question; this last, in its turn, 

 after purification by several crystallizations, constitutes a volatile 

 substance fusible at 176° to 181° F. Its analysis by the salt of silver 

 yielded numbers which indicated the formula C'-' H"* CP O*. 



Subtracting the chlorine and going back to the primary substance, 

 it will be seen that it diff'ers from the hydrate of phenyle of M. Lau- 

 rent only by the fixation of two molecules of oxygen, and it is well 

 known that this is the relation of an acid to aldehyde which corre- 

 sponds to it. The author therefore proposes provisionally to call the 

 new substance monochloi-uretted phenylic acid. If we had phenylic acid 

 C-'»H''-0*,the hydrocarbui-et formed at a high temperature in presence 

 of the caustic alkalies, would be necessarily phenylen C'^o H'-. This 

 last, in its turn, treated with fuming nitric acid, would yield the 



nitrogenous body C^o VN^O* )' ^^^"^^y" *^^^ dissolved in ammo- 



niated alcohol, and submitted to the action of a current of sulphu- 

 retted hydrogen, as haj)pily suggested by M. Zinin, ought to yield, 

 by the fixation of hydrogen, the body C-" H'* N«, that is to say, 

 nicotina. 



This is exactly what hajjpens in the present case ; except that 

 instead of having the jireccding bodies, a parallel series is obtained, 

 in which one equivalent of chlorine is substituted for one equivalent 

 of hydrogen. 



The author has successively obtained the substances represented 



