84 DR. EDWARD SCHUNCK ON SOME 



remarks on this process and the products to which it gives 

 rise. 



I . Though I have no doubt that the products^ of the pro- 

 perties and composition of which I have just given an 

 accountj are distinct chemical compounds^ still it might 

 be objected that some of them were not free from an ad- 

 mixture of products of decomposition derived from alcohol 

 alone, the action of caustic alkali on alcohol being a process 

 not very well understood. In order to satisfy myself on 

 this point, I took an alcoholic solution of caustic soda, 

 boiled it for some time, and then evaporated it in contact 

 with the air. The solution became brown ; and on adding 

 water and an excess of acid, after evaporation of the 

 alcohol, I obtained a brown flocculent precipitate, which, 

 being filtered off and washed, was dissolved in alcohol. 

 The solution left, on evaporation, a dark brown resinous 

 residue, which I found to be quite insoluble in ether. That 

 portion of the products obtained in this process which was 

 insoluble in water and ether, but easily soluble in alcohol 

 and alkalies, was therefore certain to contain some of this 

 resinous matter; and I therefore laid the whole of it aside, 

 and gave up all further examination of it. It is certainly 

 true that by the action of alkali on alcohol in closed vessels 

 a totally different product is obtained — a product which 

 differs from the other by its solubility in ether, and its 

 total insolubility in alkalies, and shows a striking resem- 

 blance to the body A, which is also soluble in ether and 

 insoluble in alkalies. Still, as my process was conducted 

 in open vessels and not under pressure, I think it is not pro- 

 bable that any of this substance was formed"^. 



*■ According to Liebig, the colour which an alcoholic solution of caustic 

 potash assumes in contact with the air is due to aldehyde-resin, the product 

 of decomposition formed by the action of caustic alkalies on aldehyde. 

 Weidenbusch (Annalen der Chemie u. Pharmacie, B. Ixvi. S. 153), however, 

 states that the true aldehyde-resin is almost insoluble in alkalies ; and in con- 

 sequence of the discrepancy in the accounts of this body, I requested Mr. A. 



