74 ON THE PERCHLORA.TE OF THE OXIDE OF ETHULE, 



performance of the experiment, the employment of considerably smaller quanti- 

 ties. The salts should be intimately mixed in a mortar, and placed in a small 

 retort attached to a refrigerator containing ice, and a receiver similarly cooled. 

 The retort is to be heated in an oilbath, in which a thermometer is suspended, 

 so as to indicate the temperature. A wooden screen, furnished with openings 

 covered with thick plate-glass at such intervals as to afford a full view of the 

 different parts of the apparatus, should be erected in front of it, and strings 

 passed around the screen and attached to a bar traversing on a pivot, and sup- 

 porting an argand spirit lamp, by which heat is communicated to the oilbath, 

 so as to enable the flame of the lamp to be removed from or applied to the ap- 

 paratus, according to the indications of the thermometer, without exposing the 

 person of the operator. After the heat has reached 212° F., below which the 

 salts employed do not react on each other, it should be raised very gradually, 

 and the distillation finished below 340° F. Under these circumstances but 

 little danger is to be apprehended from the retort, but the ether in the receiver 

 must be treated with the greatest caution, since it has exploded in our hands 

 in attempting to remove it with a pipette from the stratum of water which 

 covers it. This water, therefore, should be removed by the cautious use of 

 strips of blotting paper, moistened at the end, and introduced into the tube 

 employed as a receiver. 



To avoid the danger attendant on the management of the ether in its pure 

 state, it may be received in strong alcohol, since it is not explosive when dis- 

 solved in alcohol. If the experiment be performed with seventy grains of sul- 

 phate of barytes, from one to two drachms of absolute alcohol will be found 

 sufficient for this purpose. By the addition of an equal volume of -water, the 

 «ther may subsequently be separated from this solution, in small quantities, for 

 the purpose of examination. But, in this case a loss of ether is sustained, by 

 the decomposing influence of the water employed. 



The per chlorate of ethule obtained in this way is a transparent, colourless 

 liquid, possessing a peculiar, though agreeable smell, and a very sweet taste, 

 which, on subsiding, leaves a biting impression on the tongue, resembling that 

 of the oil of cinnamon. It is heavier than water, through which it rapidly 



not be substituted for the perchlorate of barytes, since the sulphovinate is decomposed without 

 acting on it. We were equally unsuccessful in an attempt to procure the ether by the distillation 

 of perchlorate of barytes and concentrated sulphovinic acid. 



