40 On the Composition of [Julv, 



and defiant gas reduced to their elements * The alcohol of 

 Richter, the specific gravity of which is 0-792 at CS°, is composed 

 of 100 pans hy weight of defiant gas and 63*58 of water. We are 

 not acquainted with alcohol entirely free from water; hut it is suffi- 

 cient at present to have determined the manner according to which 

 that liquor is composed, and to have nearly indicated the proportion 

 of the elements of a mixture of pure alcohol and water of a deter- 

 minate specific gravity. 



Section Second. 



Analysis of Sulphuric Ether. 



6. Decomposition of Ether ly means of a red-hot Porcelain Title. 



Tiie ether which I employed for these experiments had been 

 rectified by three successive operations : — I. It was distilled from a 

 solution of potash till one half came over. 2. The product was 

 washed with twice its weight of water. 3. It was then distilled 

 from muriate of lime at the temperature of 91-5°, and only the 

 third part of the liquor was collected for experiment. The ether 

 thus obtained was of the specific gravity 0*7155, at the temperature 

 of (i8°. I distilled, at a temperature below that at which ether boils, 

 47 grammes (725868 grains) of that liquid through a red-hot 

 porcelain tube. This apparatus was similar to that described for the 

 analysis of alcohol. The operation lasted nine hours. The pro- 

 ducts were — 



1. In the porcelain tube a small quantity of charcoal, which 

 weighed 0*12 gramme (1"S5 grain). 



2. An empyreumatic oil. It was brown, liquid, volatile, and 

 soluble in alcohol. There was likewise a thick blackish substance, 

 only soluble in ether, and analogous to pitch. There were like- 

 wise crystals in thin plates, less volatile than the brown oil, and 

 similar to those which the alcohol produced when treated in the 

 same way.f The mixture of these three substances weighed 0*4 

 gramme (5*17S grains). 



3. There was disengaged 55*S5 litres (340S-4 cubic inches) of 

 gas at the temperature of 6\±°, and when the barometer stood at 

 0*7309 metre (28*776 inches), and saturated with moisture. The 

 first portions, constituting a third of the whole, contained -j-^- of 

 their volume of carbonic acid gas ; the remainder contained none 

 of that substance. These 55-85 litres weighed 43*245 grammes 



* The proportions found by Saussure make alcohol a compound of two inte- 

 grant particles of nletiant gas and one of water ; or of two atoms rai bon, three 

 hydrogen, and one oxygen. — T. 



+ They are soluble in alcohol. They disappear in water at the end of some 

 days. In oiygen gas they only burn at a red heat, and in the state of vapour. 

 They are not decomposed by repeated volatilizations in this gas at a temperature 

 below incandescence. Oil of rosemary and of oranges passed through a red-hot 

 tube furnish them equally ; but I have always obtained them in too small a quantity 

 to be able te determine exactly their nature and properties. 



