mixture had a delightful ethereal odor. The flask was 

 corked and left standing several weeks while other work was 

 in progress. The ester solution was then put in a vacuum 

 desiccator over sulphuric acid and the alcohol evaporated. 

 A black tarry solid mass was left having the ester odor. 

 It was extracted with warm water and filtered from insoluble 

 tar. The filtrate had a green color and the ethereal odor. 

 It was shaken out with ether; the ether layer had a blood- 

 red color while the water layer was deep green. The extrac- 

 tion with ether was continued until the water layer was no longer 

 green. The combined ether extracts were evaporated in a ±±sx 

 desiccator without heat. A black tar-like solid was left 

 very much like the original material but it had the ester odor. 

 It wa- partly oluble in water and readily soluble in alcohol. 

 The alcoholic solution was tested on the skin and found to be 

 not poisonous. The ester, or mixture of esters, was not in- 

 vestigated further in this connection, but was later shown 

 to give the reactions for gallic acid and methyl furfurol. 

 These reactions will be referred to in connection with other 

 experiments. 



After a few other preliminary experiments, it became 

 evident that the original material was a complex mixture of 

 substances and that it would have to be fractionated by some 

 means and the fractions studied separately. 



A portion of the original substance was treated with 

 50 per cent alcohol and was found to be partly soluble in 



-19- 



