

PB.ZPARISG ACETIC ETHER. g}9 



XIII. 



Observation* on the Two different Methods of preparing 

 Acetic Ether; by Mr. Henry, Professor in the School of 

 Pharmacy at Paris*. 



JOEING directed by the Society of Pharmacy to ascertain 

 the difference between acetic ether prepared in the direct 

 way, and that prepared by the intervention of sulphuric 

 acid, I shall proceed to give an account of the experimenti 

 I made on the subject. 



Mr. Gehien, in a letter addressed to Mr. Guyton, in the Gehlen says 

 79th Number of the Annales de Chimie, affirms, that he ^"be made 

 has proved the truth of Scheele's assertion, who says, without a mi- 

 acetic acid is incapable of forming ether, without the i n , neral acid - 

 tervention of a mineral acid. 



The author does not say what acetic acid he employed ; But very little 

 he merely asserts the fact, recommends " the use of very suffices ° 

 pure acetic acid," and adds, " that a minimum of sulpnu. 

 rous acid is sufficient to form ether." 



I know that in a great part of Germany acetic acid is The German 

 extracted from acetate of soda by means of sulphuric acid; chtefly^om 

 while that directed by Pelletier is obtained from acetate of acetate of sod* , 

 copper. I employed the latter, and it did not contain an 

 atom of mineral acid. But without entering into the dis- 

 cussion of a point long decided by uniform facts, I return 

 to the object of my inquiry, the examination of the two 

 kinds of acetic ether. 



We are indebted to Pelletier for the process for obtain- Pelletier's pro- 

 ing acetic ether, which consists in mixing equal parts of "her." ^^ C 

 rectified alcohol and acetic acid; in eohobating the product 

 of the distillation on the residuum three times; and in 

 rectifying the ether from the potash. 



I followed his process with this difference, that I carried 

 the cobobation as far as six times. 



From a mixture of 500 grammes [a little more than a Its results, 

 pint] of alcohol rectified to 36°, and an equal quantity of 

 acetic ether at 11°, I obtained 495 grammes of ether at 



* An. de Claim. Vol. LVIII. p. 199, May, 1806. 



Q 2 24 Q 



