64 * Chloric Ether. 



hoping to verify the same result, but did not succeed. With the oil 

 four times distilled, having specific gravity .883, the metal was oxidated 

 quite rapidly. Ten grains in the oil, during three months, lost two; 

 the liquid in the mean time became thickened, and of a dark brown 

 color. The oil of copaiva, it seems, contains oxygen, which, uniting 

 with the metal, forms potassa ; this, in its turn, is taken up by the oil 

 forming a peculiar species of soap ; the oxide being taken up as fast 

 as formed, leaves the surface bright and metallic, whenever the film 

 of soap is removed. To ascertain whether the balsam from which I 

 obtained the oil was pure, I obtained specimens from different drug- 

 gists in this city for trial, and, with those considered the purest from 

 the ordinary tests, arrived at the same result as above stated. Hence 

 it appears, judging from my own experiments, that no substance hith- 

 erto used will supply the place of naphtha in preserving potassium. 

 If I am in error, 1 shall be happy to be corrected. — July, 1831. 



Art. VI. — JVew mode of preparing a spirituous solution of Chloric 

 Ether; by Samuel Guthrie, of Sackett's Harbor, N. Y. 



M'^.. Editor — As the usual process for obtaining chloric ether for 

 solution in alcohol is both troublesome and expensive, and as from its 

 lively and invigorating effects it may become an article of some value 

 in the Materia Medica, I have thought a portion of your readers might 

 be gralified with the communication of a cheap and easy process for 

 preparing it. I have therefore given one below, combining these ad- 

 vantages with unerring certainty in the result. 



Into a clean copper still, put three pounds of chloride of lime and 

 two gallons of well flavored alcohol, of sp. gr. ,844, and distil. 

 Watch the process, and when the product ceases to come highly 

 sweet and aromatic, remove and cork it up closely in glass vessels. 

 The remainder of the spirit should be distilled off for a new operation. 

 These proportions are not essential — if more chloride of lime be 

 used, the etherial product will be increased ; nor is it necessary that 

 the proof of the spirit should be very high, but I have commonly used 

 the above proportions and proof, and have every reason to be satis- 

 fied with them. From the above quantity I have usually obtained 

 about one gallon of etherial spirit.* 



* The affinity of chlorine to lime, is so weak, and to alcohol so strong, that the chlo- 

 rine is all taken up, long before the distillation is over; hence, the absolute necessity . 

 of watching tlie process, so as to know when to set aside the etherial portion. 



