1819.] On the Combination of Acids ivith Bases, fyc. 37 



Article VII. 



Remarks on the Combination of Acids with Bases and indifferent 

 Substances. By Dr. F. Sertiirner, of Einbeck.* 



In both my dissertations on opium, morphia and meconic 

 acid, there occur some conclusions respecting the compounds 

 which the acids form with indifferent substances. To these I 

 was led by observations not generally known, though I did not 

 mention them. I shall here give a short account of these 

 observations. In 1806 I found, during a series of experiments 

 respecting the formation of sulphuric ether, and which appeared 

 to me inexplicable, according to the usually received theory, that 

 sulphuric acid, when simply mixed with alcohol, unites to it, and 

 forms a peculiar acid which cannot be decomposed by any saline 

 basis, to which I gave the name of prot-oinothionic acid (Jirst 

 sulphuretted wine acid). By considering this substance as an 

 intimate compound of the acid with the alcohol, which cannot 

 again be decomposed by heat, the nature of it becomes sufficiently 

 evident. Now as nothing more is necessary but a small spark to 

 set fire to a great quantity of combustible matter, this observation 

 in like manner carried me speedily a great deal further. I easily 

 conjectured and speedily ascertained that the powerful acids are 

 capable of uniting not merely with alcohol, but with other organic 

 bodies, as sugar, gum, tallow, when cautiously treated, and of 

 forming with them acids more or less durable, and in many 

 respects remarkable, though hitherto entirely overlooked. By these 

 observations the field of chemistry was enlarged in a practical and 

 theoretic point of view. It deserves attention, and is very 

 characteristic, that no reagent indicates a trace of the sub- 

 stances of which these new acids are composed ; that, for 

 example, in oinothionic acid, and its salts, neither solutions of 

 lead nor barytes indicate the presence of sulphuric acid by 

 rendering the liquid muddy. Several chemists have in fact 

 made experiments with these acids and their salts ; but they 

 have drawn wrong conclusions respecting them. 



Prof. Trommsdorff has lately discovered and made known a 

 true direct compound of alcohol with vegetable acids. This, as 

 far as my knowledge reaches, is the first time that such a com- 

 pound, which unites with the saline bases without undergoing 

 decomposition, has been thought of. The strong mineral acids 

 combine with it more easdy, as they are capable of driving off 

 the caloric ; for alcohol is a thermate ; or a compound of true 

 alcohol and heat. With the hydrates the combinations take 

 place more readily ; because in them the water is not combined 

 50 firmly as the caloric is in the thermates. A circumstance, 



• Translated fiom Gilbert's Anoalen der f>hy.;ik, la. 33. (Sept. 1818.) 



