Ryan and Dillon — On the Hydrocarbons of Beeswax. Ill 



case of beeswax give no hydrogen, 4'1 per cent, may be due to incompleteness 

 of the reaction, and, if the evolution of hydrogen from the alcohols is not 

 interfered with by the other constituents of the wax, about 2-45 per cent, of 

 the was, although capable of combining with acids to form esters, does not give 

 hydrogen when heated with potash-lime. 



Such alcohols may be secondary or tertiary, and in order to test this view 

 higher tertiary 1 and secondary 2 alcohols were synthesized, and their behaviour 

 towards potash-lime was investigated. 



2. Dimethyl-Heptadecyl Carbinol. — The tertiary alcohol dimethyl-heptadecyl 

 carbinol, C„ H 35 ■ C (CH 3 ) 2 ■ OH, was melted on the water-bath and mixed 

 with an equal weight of powdered potash. When cold the mass was well 

 mixed in a mortar with ten parts of finely powdered potash-lime and then 

 transferred completely to a hard glass tube. The latter was connected to a 

 Toepler pump, exhausted of air, and then heated in a mercury-bath. On 

 raising the temperature slowly to 220° 0. water came over, but no hydrogen 

 was evolved. 



Most of the dimethyl-heptadecyl carbinol was recovered unchanged from 

 the product. At higher temperatures water was given off, but there was still 

 no evolution of hydrogen. 



3. Diphenyl-Heptadecyl Carbinol and Pentadecyl-p. Tolyl Carbinol. — 

 Similarly, at temperatures not exceeding 250° O, the tertiary alcohol diphenyl- 

 heptadecyl carbinol, C„H 3s ■ C (C S H 5 ) 3 • OH, and the secondary alcohol 

 pentadecyl-p. tolyl carbinol, C 15 H 3l ■ CHOH ■ 6 H 4 CH 3 did not evolve 

 hydrogen when heated with potash-lime. 



4. Glucose. — By interaction with potash-lime at 250 c C. glucose gave a 

 volume of hydrogen slightly smaller than that which corresponds to the one 

 primary alcoholic group which the substance contains. The secondary 

 alcoholic groups did not contribute to the evolution of hydrogen under these 

 conditions. 



II. The Hydrocarbons. 



The hypothesis formed by us that alcohols are contained in the so-called 

 hydrocarbons extracted by Buisine's method was subjected to a direct test by 

 determining the percentages of carbon and hydrogen in the extract. 



Myricin, prepared from Irish beeswax by extraction in the manner 

 described by one of us, 3 was hydrolysed with potash, and the unsaponifiable 



1 Proc. Royal Irish Acad., 1912, xxix., B, p. 235. 



2 Proc. Royal Irish Acad., 1912, xxx., B, p. 1. 



3 Proc. Royal Dublin Soc, 1909, xii. (N.S.), p. 212. 



