

Chemistry and Physics. 429 



Cerotol is soluble in concentrated sulphuric acid and water, precipi- 

 tates from the solution a new substance soluble in alcohol and to some 

 extent in water ; it may be crystallized from ether ; its analysis leads 

 to the formula S0 3 C 54 H 55 O-f-HO, and our author designates it as 

 the sulphate of the oxyd of cerotyle. It appears to be sulphocerotol the 

 homologue of sulphomethol, but the equivalent of water which Mr. 

 Brodie obtains in his analysis, makes it an altogether anomalous com- 

 pound. If we conceive this to be water of crystallization, or to be 

 accounted for by a slight error in the analysis of a body of so high 

 an equivalent, its formula becomes S (C 27 H 55 ) 2 4 or C 54 H 1 10 

 S0 4 in M. Gerhardt's notation (=C 54 II 55 0-f""S0 3 ), anc ^ it is homolo- 

 gous with sulphomethol. 



Cerotol, by the action of chlorine, gives rise to a body which appears 

 to correspond to a chlorinized cerotic aldehyde. By a high tempera- 

 ture cerotol is volatile ; it distils in part unchanged and is in part con- 

 verted into a hydrocarbon and water. 



The part of the wax which is rendered soluble by fusion with potash 

 is found to be pure cerotic acid identical with that obtained from bees- 

 wax. By distillation the Chinese wax also yields a portion of cerotic 

 acid in the earlier part of the process, which is separated from the hy- 

 drocarbon formed by solution in potash. This consists principally of a 

 .solid crystalline substance which resembles paraffine and fuses at about 

 58° C. Its formula is C 27 H 54 , so that it appears to baa homologue of 

 olefiant gas and cetene ; it is called cerotene. By ihe prolonged action of 

 I chloric! upon cerotene it yielded successive products, in which analysis 



showed a progressive substitution of chlorine for the hydrogen ; the 

 last gave the formula C 27 (H 32 CI 22 ). An attempt to determine the 

 density of the vapor of cerotene was unsuccessful, and on investiga- 

 tion, Mr. Brodie found, that by repeated distillations, even in a sealed 

 tube, it was converted into a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons of boiling 

 points varying from 75° C. to above 260° C. 







The Chinese wax itself appears to be a compound ether homologous 

 with spermaceti; its analysis leads to the formula C 54 H 108 2 ; this 

 by the assimilation of H 2 O is converted into cerotol and cerotic acid 

 C 54 H I08 2 +H 2 2 C 27 H 56 0+C 27 H 54 2 . In a third memoir 



Mr. Brodie proposes to give the results of his investigation of nyrieine. 



T. S. Hunt. 

 4. On Chloropicrine ; by John Stenhouse, PH. D., (Philos. Mag., 

 July, 1848.) — When an aqueous sofution of nitropicric acid is poured 

 over an excess of hypochlorite of lime, the mixture heats spontaneously 

 and evolves pungent vapors, and by artificial heat a large amount of a 

 colorless oil distils over with the vapors of water to which the author has 



given the name of chloropicrine. When a clear solution of the hypo- 

 chlorite is used, a quantity of carbonate of lime separates; a similar 

 decomposition of nitropicric acid is effected by chlorine gas, by mix- 

 ture of chlorate of potash and hydrochloric acid and by aqua regia, but 

 with the simultaneous production of chloranile. When freed from 

 acid by digestion with carbonate of magnesia, and from water by chlo- 

 rid of calcium, it is a colorless neutral liquid which boils at 120 C., and 

 has a sp. gr. of 16657; its odor is aromatic and when undiluted very 

 pungent, resembling oil of mustard. It is soluble in alcohol and ether, 





