684 



phosphorus with water, when sorbic acid is at once reproduced ; 

 with alcohol, when sorbic ether is obtained ; with ammonia and 

 phenylamine, when respectively, sorbamide and phenyl-sorbamide 

 are generated. The chloride is not volatile without considerable 

 decomposition. 



Sorbamide. This substance is formed by the action of dry car- 

 bonate of ammonium upon the crude chloride of sorbyl. White, 

 readily fusible needles, soluble in water and alcohol. Composition 

 of 



Sorbamide H 12 H 9 NO 2 = H j> N. 



H J 



Phenyl-sorbamide is obtained by replacing the ammonia in the 

 previous process by phenylamine. After treatment with water an 

 oily liquid remains, which gradually solidifies into a crystalline mass. 

 I have not analysed it, its composition being sufficiently characterized 

 by theory. 



When distilled with an excess of hydrate of baryta, sorbic acid 

 exhibits the deportment of the acids with four equivalents of oxygen ; 

 carbonate of barium is produced, whilst an aromatic hydrocarbon 

 distils over. The limited amount of material has precluded for the 

 present the possibility of a more minute examination of this body. 



Sorbic acid is obviously the first term of a new series of well-cha- 

 racterized organic acids, closely allied to the ordinary fatty and 

 aromatic acids, occupying, in fact, a sort of intermediate position be- 

 tween the two. On comparing sorbic acid with the terms of the 

 fatty and aromatic acid-series containing equal quantities of carbon, 

 the hydrogen of sorbic acid stands in the middle 



C 12 H 8 4 



Caproic Sorbic Lower homologue 



acid. acid. of benzoic acid. 



The same remark applies to the carbon of sorbic acid when con- 

 trasted with the fatty and aromatic acids containing an equal quan- 

 tity of hydrogen, 



CH0 



Butyric acid. Sorbic acid. Toluic acid. 



