'602 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



The methods available for the estimation of the water are limited to the 

 use of a reagent which reacts or combines with the water alone without 

 action on the other two constituents. Such a reagent as calcium carbide 

 or an anhydrous salt might be used ; a method involving the use of these 

 reagents has been worked out for the mixture under investigation, but is 

 not described in this paper. A much simpler and more accurate procedure 

 is to estimate the acetone by one of the methods available after suitably 

 diluting with water. Of these, a modification of the method suggested 



ACETONE 



D?£ = 980 



FIG. 2. 



by Messinger (Ber. 1888, 21, 3366), or by Denige (Comp. rend. 1898, 

 127, 963), is convenient, and gives good results. The estimation of the 

 n-butyl alcohol requires a longer time, and is not so reliable. Although the 

 estimation of n-butyl alcohol alone can be rapidly carried out by a method 

 involving the use of an acyl anhydride [as that suggested by Verley and 

 Bolsing for hydroxyl estimation (Ber. 1901, 34, 3354)], complications arise 

 when the alcohol is mixed with other substances. The presence of water, 

 especially in any appreciable quantity, is objectionable. It is probable that 

 a large amount of water prevents the esterification from readily proceeding 

 to completion. A method which gives satisfactory results has been devised 



