668 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1734. 



Oil ^mberoyis. By Casper Neuman, M. D. Professor of Chemislnj at Berlin, 

 and F. R. S. Part III. N° 435, p. 41 7. 

 The substance of this 3d part is incorporated with the first part at p. 66 1 of 

 this Vol. of these Abridgments. 



The Ed/tor's Account, with Ohservations, of Experiments on Ambergris, made 



by Mr. John Broivne, F.R.S. and by Mr. Ambrose Godfrey Hanchewitz, F.B. S. 



To tuhich are subjoined Dr. Neuman s Vindicatory Remarks. N°435, p. 437. 



From the Latin. 



At the request of the Society Messrs. Browne and Godfrey Hanckewitz re- 

 peated Dr. N.'s experiment on the distillation of ambergris. 



Mr. Browne took §iss of ambergris, and reduced it to a powder with some 

 terra cimolia alba, such as he always used in the distillation of sal succini. This 

 he put into a retort, and subjected to various degrees of heat. He obtained first, 

 a phlegm, as clear as the purest water; next a pale brown coloured spirit ; tiien 

 an oil of a deeper brown colour; and lastly when the heat was very strong, a 

 thick black balsam. Although this oil and balsam had the smell of amber 

 (succinum), yet Mr. B. could not extract from them any volatile acid salt, like 

 that which amber (succinum) yields; nor did the spirit of ambergris produce an 

 effervescence with alkalies, as the acid spirit of amber does. It is this volatile 

 acid* which Mr. B. conceives to be the true criterion or characteristic of amber 

 (succinum). A hard jet black residuum was left, different from that which re- 

 mains after the distillation of ambergris. 



Mr. Godfrey distilled ambergris with twice its weight of the finest white sand, 

 and obtained a limpid oil and a bituminous residuum. The oil rectified per se, 

 gave a phlegm which had a pleasant subacid taste, like weak vinegar ; this was 

 followed by a limpid balsamic oil, resembling petroleum. He afterwards distilled 

 §ss of ambergris per se, and obtained the same results with a moderate heat ; 

 when the ambergris was distilled to perfect dryness, he urged the fire, and there 

 remained at the last 3 grs. of a white saline earth, which effervesced with acids, 

 and deliquesced on exposure to the air. As he could not obtain from the black 

 residuum either any volatile alkali or phosphorus, he infers that ambergris is 

 not an animal substance, and particularly that it is not an animal excrement; for 

 phosphorus (as he had shown in the Phil. Trans. N° 428) may be extracted 

 from the excrements of all animals. He concludes that ambergris is a bitumen 

 very nearly allied to amber (succinum), but not a true amber, since it does not 

 yield a volatile acid salt, as amber does. Mr. G. repeated the distillation of 

 ambergris with equal parts of pounded glass ; and the result was the same, except 

 that the phlegm had the taste rather of a neutral salt than of an acid. 



* Described by subsequent chemists under tiie name of tlie succinic acid. 



