94 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



The well which proved to be the source of the epidemic 

 was the only one which was contaminated among the wells 

 examined, yet we cannot but realize that there are distrib- 

 uted in the small towns and on the farms many such 

 wells, which are in the condition of a gun which is not 

 supposed to be loaded, but is liable to " go off " at any time 

 with disastrous results. 



There is no doubt that little or no attention is given to 

 the water and milk supplies as long as Providence in some 

 mysterious manner protects those w^ho tempt her in many 

 ways, but wdien the penalty is paid, it is a costly one, for 

 instruction furnished by " experience " is in many cases 

 very expensive. 



DIPHENYL ETHER DERIVATIVES. 



ALFRED N. COOK. 



(1) HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 



(2) PREPARATION OF A NITRO-METHYL DERIVATIVE. 



(3) OXIDATION OF THE METHYL GROUP TO AN ACID AND 



THE PREPARATION OF SOME OF THE SALTS OF THE 

 ACID. 



(4) REDUCTION OF THE NITRO GROUP TO FORM A BASE AND 



THE FORMATION OF THE PLATINUM SALT. 



(5) BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



Historical:— In the year 1854, Dr. K. List and Dr. H. 

 Limpricht (Ann. 90, 190) were studying the products of the 

 destructive distillation of copper benzoate and succeeded 

 in identifying the principal product as phenyl benzoate. 

 During the process of purification they separated from 

 this by fractional distillation a substance to which they 

 assigned the formula, CR^O^, and called it phenyl oxide. 

 (Dr. John Steinhause had previously studied the products 

 of the distillation of copper benzoate (Ann. 58, 91), but 

 did not detect the substance in question). Limpricht 



