110 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



Direct experiments with melissyl alcohol, which we carried out, showed 

 that the reaction, although nearly, is not quite complete— the alcohol 

 evolving 95 -9 per cent, of the quantity of hydrogen theoretically obtainable 

 from it by interaction with potash-lime. 



In the experiment of A. & P. Buisine the amount of combined primary 

 alcohols in 100 grams of the wax, which, owing to incompleteness of the 

 reaction, does not evolve hydrogen, may be taken as 2 - 16 grams; and as the 

 total amount of combined alcohols which evolved no hydrogen was 3-45, it is 

 possible that a very small portion, about l - 3 per cent., may consist of combined 

 alcohols other than primary. We, therefore, examined the behaviour of 

 some synthetical higher tertiary and secondary alcohols towards potash-lime, 

 and found that they did not evolve hydrogen, so that if esters derived from 

 alcohols similar to these were present in the wax, the volume of hydrogen 

 evolved would be less than that calculated from the ester number of the wax. 



Our experiments also indicate that the so-called hydrocarbons extracted 

 by petroleum ether from the product of the interaction of the wax with 

 potash-lime contain on an average about - 8 per cent, of oxygen. 



With regard to the percentage of hydrocarbons in beeswax, Schwalb stated 

 that it is about 7, and A. and P. Buisine that it is about 14, of which, 

 however, we have shown above that a portion is due either to incompleteness 

 of the reaction or to incompleteness of the reaction and the presence of higher 

 alcohols other than primary. It is difficult to explain the difference, 

 35 per cent., between the figure of A. and P. Buisine as collected by 

 us and that of Schwalb, unless we assume that a slight further action of 

 potash-lime on the acids leads to the formation of hydr* carbons. 



Experimental Part. 

 I. Action of Potash-Lime on Alcohols. 



1. Melissyl alcohol. — Melissyl alcohol (0-5061 gram) was melted with 

 an equal weight of finely powdered potash in a porcelain capsule on the 

 water-bath. The solid mass obtained on cooling was powdered in a 

 mortar, intimately mixed with about ten times its weight of dry powdered 

 potash-lime, and transferred completely to the hard glass tube of Buisine's 

 apparatus, in which it was heated to 250° C. for three hours. The volume of 

 hydrogen obtained was 53'5 c.c. at 21-5° C. at 748 ramp., which, when 

 reduced to standard temperature and pressure, became 48-83 c.c. Hence the 

 volume from one gram of the alcohol was 97 - 35 c.c., whereas that theoretically 

 obtainable is 101 -53 c.c. 



It is possible, therefore, that of the 6-55 per cent, of alcohols, which in the 



