63 REPORT — 1873. 



is equal in dyeing-power to about 8 times its weight of the best madder, and is the 

 pure substance required for the dj'eing, in place of a complicated mixture containing 

 certain constituents which have a positively injurious effect on the colours produced. 



The scientilic knowledge and energy which Mr. Perkin has brought to bear on 

 the manufacture of this colouring-matter seem already to have worked wonders. 

 The demand and supply for artificial alizarin are increasing at a most rapid rate ; 

 and yet the manufacture of it seems hardly to have commenced. The value of 

 madder has much decreased ; and in fact, j udging by what occurred in the year of 

 revolution and commercial depression (1848), when the price of madder fell for a 

 time to a point at which it was considered it would no longer remunerate the 

 growers to produce it, that point has now been again reached, but certainly from 

 very different reasons. Last year * artificial alizarin equal in value toabout one 

 fourth of the madder imported into England was manufactured in this country. 

 This year the amount vtIII be much larger. 



Thus is growing up a great industry, which, far and wide, must exercise most 

 important effects. Old and cumbrous processes must give way to better, cheaper, 

 newer ones ; and, lastly, thousands of acres of land in many different parts of the 

 world wiU be relieved from the necessity of growing madder, and be ready to 

 receive some new crop. In this sense may the theoretical chemist be said even to 

 have increased the boundaries of the globe. 



On the Detection of Adulteration of Tea. By Alfred H. Allen, F.C.S. 



On Alpha- and Beta-Naphthylic Sulphide. 

 By Henry E. Armstrong, Ph.D., F.C.S. 



AVhereas in the fatty series of organic compounds two classes of bodies of the 

 form Il'(^CN) are known, viz. the sulphocyanates and the so-called mustard-oils 

 or isosulphocyanates, in the aromaric series the compounds of the latter class alone 

 have been obtained. Thus all attempts to prepare plienylic sulphocyanate, for 

 example, by distilling a salt of benzenesulphonic acid with potassic sulphocyanate 

 have been unsuccessful. It appeared possible that the desired compound, altiiough 

 formed in the first instance, was produced at a temperature so high that it at once 

 underwent decomposition, and that better results might be hoped for from the 

 employment of sulpho-salts more easily acted upon tlian the benzenesulphonates. 

 A dry" mixture of the potassic salt of alpha-naphthalenesulphonic acid and potassic 

 sulphocyanate was therefore submitted to distillation; and a semisolid product 

 was thus obtained, which could be purified bj' recrystallization from a solution of 

 carbonic disulphide in alcohol. On analysis numbers were obtained which show 

 that the product is a naphtlnjlic sulphide, (C,oH,)2S. A mixture of the potassic 

 salt of beta-naphthelenesulphonic acid and potassic sulphocyanate behaved similarly 

 on distillation ; the product appears to consist of beta-naphthylic sulphide. 



Alpha-naphthylic sulpliide crystallizes in long white needles, melting at abotit 

 100° ; it is scarcely soluble in alcohol, but dissolves readily in carbonic disulphide 

 and glacial acetic acid. The beta-compound has a higher melting-point, and is 

 also less soluble in a mixture of carbonic disulphide and alcohol. 



On distilling the potassic salt of either alpha- or beta-naphthalenesiilphonic acid 

 much naphthalene is formed, but apparently no naphthylic sulphide. 



On the Action of Sulphxiric acid on Efhylaniline and Dimeihylaniline. 

 By Henry E. Armstrong, Ph.D., F.C.S. 



On heating ethylaniline with an excess of Nordhausen sulphuric acid until sul- 

 phurous hydride is evolved, and subsequently mixing the product with water, a 



* On the 1st of this month (September) the value of madder-roots in France was 24 to 

 26 francs per 50 kilograniiiies. The a^'erage price in 1848 was 27, but in June and July 

 of that year it was 22 francs. 



