PROCEEDINGS 



01' 



THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ACADEMY 

 I. 



ON HIGHER KETONES AND SECONDAEY ALCOHOLS DERIVED 

 FROM THE AMIDES OF PALMITIC AND STEARIC ACIDS. 



By HUGH RYAN and THOMAS NOLAN, University College, Dublin. 



Read May 13. Published July 10, 1912. 



An investigation of the properties of ketones and secondary alcohols derived 

 from the higher fatty acids seems desirable owing to the possibility oi the 

 occurrence in waxes, such as beeswax and montan wax, of substances which 

 belong to these classes, and which may have hitherto escaped detection if the 

 chemical properties characteristic of the lower ketones and secondary 

 alcohols are not possessed by the higher members of these series. 



The high percentage of " hydrocarbons " found by applying Buisine's 

 method to beeswax may be in part due to the existence in the wax of esters 

 of alcohols other than primary, while the unsaponifiable portion of montan 

 wax may consist of a mixture of hydrocarbons with secondary or tertiary 

 alcohols. 



Sevei'al of the higher ketones have been obtained by Krafft' by destruc- 

 tive distillation of mixtures of the barium salts of the required fatty acids, 

 while others were prepared by Bertrand'' and Ponzio and De Gaspari^ by the 

 action of zinc alkyls on the chlorides of the higher fatty acids. 



Kipping* obtained the ketones palmitone, stearone, laurone, and myristone, 



> Ber., xii (1879), p. 1667, xv (1882), p. 1712. 

 2 Bull., See. Chim. (3) xv, p. 765. 

 sGaz. Chim. Ital., xxix, 1, p. 471. 



* Journ. Chem. Soe., Ivii (1890), p. 985, Ixiii (1883), p. 458. 

 B.I.A. PROC, VOL. XXXI., SECT. B. [A] 



