64 REPORT 1871. 



Hofmann has achieved another triumph in a department of chemistry which he 

 has made peculiarly his own. In 1857 he showed that alcohol bases, analogous 

 to those derived from ammonia, could be obtained by replacement from phosphu- 

 retted hydrogen ; but he foiled in his attempts to prepare the two lower derivatives. 

 These missing links he has now supplied, and has thus established a complete 

 parallelism between the derivatives of ammonia and of phosphuretted hydrogen. 

 The same able chemist has lately described the aromatic cyanates, of which one 

 only, the phenylic cyauate (CO, Cg Hj, N), was previously known, having been 

 discovered about twenty years ago by Hofmann himself. He now prepares this 

 compound by the action of phosphoric anhydride on phenylurethane, and by a 

 similar method he has obtained the tolylic, xylylic, and uaphthylic cyanates. 



Stenhouse had observed many years ago that when aniline "is added to furfurol 

 the mixture becomes rose-red, and comnmnicates a fugitive red stain to the skin, 

 and also to linen and silk. He has lately resumed the investigation of this subject, 

 and has obtained two new bases, furfuraniline and furfiu-toluidine, which, like 

 rosanUine, form beautifully coloured salts, altliough the bases themselves are 

 neai-ly colourless, or of a pale brown colour. The furfuraniline hydrochlorate 

 (Ci7 H,3 Oj No CI) is prepared by adding furfurol to an alcoholic solution of aniline 

 hydrochlorate containing an excess of aniline. We have also from Stenhouse 

 a new contribution to the history of orcin, in continuation of his former masterly 

 researches on that body. He has prepared the trinitroorcin (C.H^ (N02)3 0,), a 

 powerful acid, having many points of resemblance to picric acid. ^ In connexion 

 with another research of Stenhouse made many years ago, it is interesting to find 

 his formula for euxanthon, which was also that of Erdmann, confirmed by the 

 recent experiments of i>aeyer. 



The interesting work of Dewar on the oxidation of picoline must not be passed 

 over without notice. By the action of the permanganate of potassium on that 

 body, he has obtained a new acid which bears the same relation to pyridine that 

 phthalic acid does to benzol. Thorpe and Young have published a'preliminary 

 notice of some results of great promise which they have obtained by exposing 

 paraflin to a high temperature in closed vessels. By this treatment it is almost 

 completely resolved into liquid hydrocarbons, whose boiling-points range from 

 18° C. to 300° C. Those boiling under 100' have been examined, and consist 

 chiefly of olefines. In connexion with this subject, it may be interesting to recall 

 the experiments of Pelouze and Cahours on the Pennsylvanian oils, which proved 

 to be a mixture of carbohydrogens belonging to the marsh-gas series. 



An elaborate exposition of Berthelot's method of transforming an organic 

 compound into a hydrocarbon containing a maximum of hydrogen has appeared in 

 a connected form. The organic body is heated in a sealed tube, with a large excess 

 of a strong Solution of hydriodic acid, to the temperature of 275°. The pressure in 

 these experiments Berthelot estimates at 100 atmospheres, but apparently without 

 having made any direct measm'ements. He has thus prepared ethyl hydride 

 (C^Hg) from alcohol, aldehyde, &c., hexyl hydride (C^ U^i) from benzol. Berthelot 

 has submitted both wood-charcoal and coal to the reducing action of hydriodic 

 acid, and among other interesting results he claims to have obtained in this way 

 oil of petroleum. 



By the action of chloride of zinc upon codeia, Matthiessen and Buraside have 

 obtained apocodeia, which stands to codeia in the same relation as apomorphia to 

 morphia, an atom of water being abstracted in its formation. Apocodeia is more 

 stable than apomorphia, but the action of reagents upon the two bases is -s'ery 

 similar. As regards their physiological action, the hydrochlorate of apocodeia is a 

 mild emetic, while that of apomorphia is an emetic of gi-eat activity. Other bases 

 have been obtained by ^^^right by the action of hydrobromic acid on codeia. In 

 two of these bases, bromotetracodeia and chlorotetracodeia, four molecules of the 

 codeia are welded together, so that they contain no less than seventy-two atoms of 

 carbon. They have a bitter taste, but'little physiological action. The authors of 

 these valuable researches were indebted to Messrs. Macfarlane for the precious 

 material upon which they operated. 



We are indebted to Crum Brown and Fraser for an important work on a subject 

 of great practical as well as theoretical interest,— the relation between chemical 



