TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 69 



6lude that, contrary to the opinion of Cariiis, the compound of sulphur and chlo- 

 rine analogous to water does actually exist as an extremely unstable body, readily 

 parting- witli a portion of its chlorine on being gently heated, 



Deacoii's Chlorine Process as appVied to the Manufacture of Bleachhuj-i^owder 

 on the larijer Scale. Bij Henry DEACoif. 



On tSorlif. By Professor Delffs, of He'idelherg. 



Twenty years ago M. Pelouze (Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. 3 ser. xxxr. p. 222) 

 discovered a crj-stallized substance in the fruits of Sorhus aucuparia which he 

 called Sorbin. Since that time reiy few chemists have paid attention to this 

 substance, and, as far as I know, nobody in my country has succeeded in preparing 

 it again. The principal of one of our greatest manufactories of chemical prepara- 

 tions, to whom I addressed mj'self, told me that he never found the least trace of 

 the said substance, although he had worked up large quantities of the above- 

 mentioned fruits for preparing malic acid ; and to the same result came M. Byschl 

 (Buchner's N. Repert. der Pharm. iii. p. 4), who asserts that there is no ready 

 formed sorbin in the ripe benies of Sorbns aucuparia. In my two first attempts 

 to procure sorbin I also failed ; but dming last year I succeeded, and at the same 

 time I became aware of the reason of my previous failures. When I first tried to get 

 sorbin, I thought it advisable to combine the preparation of malic acid with the 

 process given by M. Pelouze for getting sorbin, and therefore I separated the 

 former by means of acetate of lead. This is the reason, I think, which has 

 prevented the success of mj'self as well as of other chemists in the preparation 

 of sorbin. 



I will not repeat the method of forming sorbin given in all manuals of chemistry ; 

 it is sufficient to say that, when I kept strictly to the prescription of M. Pelouze, 

 I got a large quantity of beautiful crystals, a specimen of which was contained 

 in the tube exhibited. After I had got these, I tried to obtain the malic acid 

 from the residue, but I found that the malic acid had quite disappeared. To this 

 I must add that the alcoholic fermentation which takes place after the juice of 

 the berries of Sorhus aucuparia has been left a few days in a tepid place is more easily 

 perceived by the formation of carbonic acid than by the smell of spirit of wine. I 

 think it, therefore, not improbable that there is a connexion between the disap- 

 pearance of the malic acid and the small produce of spirit of wine on the one 

 side, and the formation of sorbin on the other. Suppose the malic acid, com- 

 monly called hihasic, and therefore apt to form a bimalate of ethyl ( = C^H'04- 

 20* H^ 0*4-H0), assimilates two equivalents of water to this compound, you will 

 have then the equation 



C*IF 0+20* B? 0'+3HO=0'2 IP' 0'^, 



the right-hand side of which gives the composition of sorbin. 



As pertaining to the preparation of sorbin, I ha^■e only to add that the dark 

 sticky ley in which the crystals are formed can very easily be separated by putting 

 both on a brick. After a few days' repose the brick has absorbed nearly all the 

 ley, and the pale yellow-coloured crystals of sorbin, if dissolved in water and left 

 to spontaneous evaporation, become very soon colourless. 



The sorbin belongs to the same gToup as the mannit, quercit, inosit, dul(;it, pi- 

 crit, &c. ; and as the last syllable is always characteristic in chemistry, its name, I 

 think, should bo changed into sorbit. 



Pui-ther experiments are required to prove if the supposed genesis of sorbit is 

 true or not; but, in any case, I am convinced that there is no sorbin ready formed 

 in the fruits of Sorbns aucuparia. 



On the Detection of Morj^hine hy Iodic Acid. By Prof. Delffs. 



Among the poisonous alkaloids which in forensic cases most frequently give 

 occasion for chemical investigations morphine occupies the first place. For its 



