472 Transactions.—Chemistry. 
have a portion of their hydrogen replaced by the elements of nitrous acid, 
and subsequently, a portion of the oxygen of this acid removed, the ulti- 
mate result being that a nitrogenous substance is produced which is a true 
alkaloid, in fact an amide, that is, a substance constructed upon the 
ammonia type, and which, in case of those produced from petroleum, has 
one equivalent of hydrogen of ammonia substituted by a hydro-carbon. 
Now, so far as I know, this process has not been applied with any 
success to a fixed oil or fat, if applied at all; every constituent of such 
substances is indeed held to be constructed so differently to the petroleums 
and their allies, that we should not expect results upon them at all similar 
to those we get by the same means as applied to the petroleums. 
However, by employing this process very carefully upon the purest olive 
oil I could get, I obtained as a resultant a liquid which manifested, to all 
the tests I could apply, the reaction of one containing an alkaloid. 
By employing Stras’s process to this liquid I separated an oily body 
which was in great part dissolved by weak acetic acid; the solution in this 
acid afforded dense precipitates with tannin, mercuro-iodide of potassium, 
sulpho-cyanide of potassium and zinc, a reddish precipitate with free iodine, 
and when evaporated with platino-chloride of potassium a granular yellow 
precipitate ; this precipitate, when washed well with alcohol to dissolve any 
oil present in a free state, partially fused when gently heated, and then 
blackened, and as the heat was raised the black matter was consumed, and 
a grey mass of platina left. 
These results clearly show that an alkaloid had been obtained from the 
oil used. 
Several other vegetable oils gave similar results to these, and among 
the animal oils, cod-liver oil and sperm oil. The former oil was obtained 
from the fish by steam, so that the alkaloid produced is not to be referred 
to any product of decomposition made by securing the oil. That this 
alkaloid is not to be referred to the glycerine of these oils is proved by my 
inability to obtain an alkaloid in this way from glycerine itself; and further 
by the fact that Price’s stearine, as sold in his candles, also affords me this 
alkaloidal substance. These candles do not contain glycerine, and are the 
best representation of a pure fat which I can at present get. 
These facts open up a very interesting field for research, as they show 
one of two things, viz. :—First, that there are one or more hydro-carbons of 
the benzol or naphthaline series in our fixed oils and fats :—second, or that 
the acids of these substances are in part capable of furnishing alkaloids to 
the aniline process. 
Whichever way it may prove to be, the matter is of an equal interest, 
for that there should be pure hydro-carbons mixed with the fixed vegetable 
and animal oils named, would be just as important a fact to know, as that 
