BULETINUL SOCIETĂŢII DE SCIINŢE 



manian petroleum. A crude oii that yields no less than 81 per 

 cent. of burning oils should prove an important industry. 



It is generali}* stated that Roumanian petroleum contains very 

 little oxygen — never more than i per cent. I entirely agree with 

 this statement. Althoueh no nitro°rened bodies have been found 

 in Roumanian petroleum, I have recently discovered a basic nitro- 

 gen compound with a pyridine odour. Roumanian petroleum was 

 agitated with sulphuric acid of 24.5 per cent.; from this mixture 

 was obtained after the addition of alkali and extraction with ether, 

 a thick oily, dark brown liquid bolling at 1 17 C. This substance 

 is sparingly soluble in cold water, but soluble in ether, alcohol, 

 benzene and mineral acids. It furnishes a crystalline precipitate 

 with platinum chloride: and it is precipitated with potassium fer- 

 rocyanide. Analyses of the rectified body gave the following re- 

 sults : 



I II III 



Carbon '. . . . 75.3 75.0 75 8 



Hydrogen 6.8 6.6 6.5 



Nitrogen .... .... 17.9 — 17.7 



When a hot alcoholic solution of this substance is treated with 

 metallic sodium, piperidine (C- H^ N) is obtained: 



C, H, N+3 H 2 = C, H u N. 



This proves that the substance is pyridine (C- H 5 N), or a sub - 

 stance analogous to pyridine. and yields piperidine on the addi- 

 tion of nascent hydrogen. 



I am of the opinion that Roumanian petroleum contains small 

 quantities of basic nitrogen compounds probably belonoino- to the 

 pyridine and hydropyridine series. ! ) 



*) Griffiths, «Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des sciences de Paris», t. no, p. 418 ; cChe- 

 niical News», voi. 41, p. 145 ; «Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie und Parasitenkunde», Bd. 7, 

 p. 808 ; and Gautiers «Chiuie Biqlogique» (1892), p. 268. 



