MM. Goessmann and Caldwell on Gdidic Acid. 185 



pure is produced, and the residue contains sebate of potash. 

 Thus 



C36H34 06 + 2KOHO=C20Hi6O«, 2KO + Ci6H'8 02 + 2H. 



Ricinoleic acid. Sebate of potash. Caprylic alcohol. 



But if the operation be effected at a low temperature, there is 

 produced a mixture of caprylic aldehyde and caprylic acid ; and 

 the residue contains a new acid, differing from sebacic acid. 

 This acid is also produced along with caprylic aldehyde in the 

 dry distillation of the salts of ricinoleic acid, — 



C36H34 06 = CIS HIS 02 ^ C^'^H'^O*. 

 Ricinoleic acid. Caprylic aldehyde. New acid. 



Caprylic aldehyde is a colourless, very refrangible body, which 

 is lighter than water, and boils at 171 degrees. It reduces am- 

 moniacal nitrate of silver, when heated absorbs oxygen with great 

 rapidity, and combines with alkaline bisulphites. Treated with 

 nitric acid it yields the same products as caprylic alcohol, and is 

 converted by potash into a brown viscous matter which is not 

 volatile. 



Goessmann and Scheven found in the earth-nut oil a new 

 member of the oleic acid series, to which they gave the name 

 hypogseic acid. This has now been subjected to a further in- 

 vestigation by Goessmann and Caldwell*, who have confirmed 

 its parallelism with oleic acid. It yields the same products of 

 destructive distillation as oleic acid, and like that acid is con- 

 verted by the action of nitrous acid into a new acid isomeric with 

 itself. This they name gai'dic acid. When pure it is colom-less, 

 inodorous and crystalline ; melts at 38° C, solidifies to a radia- 

 ting crystalline mass, and volatUizes unchanged at higher tem- 

 peratures. Unlike the acid from which it is derived, it is not 

 acted upon by the atmosphere at ordinary temperatures. The 

 aether of the new acid crystallizes from alcohol at low tempera- 

 tui-es in a lamellar crystalline mass, which, unlike the aether of 

 hypogseic acid, is volatile without decomposition. 



Gerickef has investigated sulphobenzole, the product obtained 



by Mitscherlich from the action of anhydrous sulphuric acid on 



benzole. It was regarded as a compound of the carbo-hydrogen 



phcnyle, C'^ H^ with sulphurous acid = (C^ IP) SO^. Gcricke 



considers that its formula must be doubled, and must be thus 



C* H^ SO'H 

 written, qi2 ijs cq^ T* Gerhardt held that it had the formula 



C'^IPS^Cl HI 



Qi2 j£5 Yy which would be hydrogen tt >, in which 



* Liebig's yJnna/en, September 185(5. 

 t Ibid. June and November 185G. 

 Phil Mag. S. 4. Vol. 13. No. 85. Mtrch 1857. 



one 



