318 Mr. E. Schunck and Dr. L. Marchlewski. [Feb. 14, 



* 



with mucli water and extracted with ether. The latter acquired a 

 splendid crimson colour, and, having been washed with water, left 

 011 evaporation reddish-violet crystals, which were recrystallised 

 from alcohol. 



As thus prepared, phylloporphyrin appears in the form of lustrous 

 crystals of a splendid reddish- violet colour, which under the micro- 

 scope are seen to be short regular prisms. It is tolerably soluble in 

 alcohol and ether, giving red fluorescent solutions, which, on the addi- 

 tion of a little acid, acquire a bluish tint. It dissolves in mineral 

 acids as well as in glacial acetic acid. The solutions give up nothing 

 when shaken up with ether, even when previously mixed with much 

 water, showing that they contain compounds of the substance with 

 the respective acids. When, however, the solutions are made alkaline 

 and then again slightly acid, then ether, on agitation, takes up the 

 substance. On adding nitric acid to the solution in acetic acid 

 it becomes greenish, and, on heating, the colour disappears entirely. 

 Phylloporphyrin possesses also acid properties, though these are not 

 very pronounced. It is, indeed, quite insoluble in aqueous alkalis ; 

 but when caustic soda is added to its alcoholic solution a brown 

 sodium compound separates, which yields up nothing to ether until 

 the alkali has been removed by means of acetic acid. It yields, 

 moreover, as before mentioned, a crystallised zinc salt, which is 

 formed 011 adding zinc acetate to its alcoholic solution, when it crys- 

 tallises out in small red needles ; the compound is decomposed by 

 hydrochloric acid, bat it is scarcely changed by acetic acid. The zinc 

 salt is of some importance in connection with the preparation of the 

 pure substance, since by its means it becomes possible to separate it 

 from other products of decomposition, more especially from the 

 brown amorphous substances accompanying it. 



As regards its absorption spectrum, phylloporphyrin is a very in- 

 teresting substance. The ethereal solution shows seven bands, which 

 are, for the most part, very sharply denned (see fig.) ; it is the 

 first of the derivatives of chlorophyll, so far discovered, which shows 

 in solution no band within the red, the first band being at the margin 

 of and almost outside that part of the spectrum. The spectrum 

 of the alcoholic solution is similar, but the second and third bands 

 are not seen, and the fourth and fifth bands appear as one. The 

 alcoholic solution to which hydrochloric acid has been added shows 

 an absorption spectrum of three bands only, one close to line B, 

 another near E, and a third, which is very faint, between the two. 

 This spectrum should, we thought, have been the same as that of 

 Hoppe-Seyler's phylloporphyrin, which we consider to be a compound 

 of our phylloporphyrin with acid ; that they are not quite identical is 

 probably due to Hoppe-Seyler's product having been impure. That 

 a solution of phylloporphyrin to which hydrochloric acid has been 



