334 C. G. Williams on Organic Substances, 
The speaker stated that one of the most interesting of the 
cases of synthesis recently accomplished was that in which 
Mr. W. H. Perkin had succeeded in producing artificially the 
odoriferous principle of new hay and the tonquin bean. 
The delicious fragrance of new hay is entirely due to the 
presence of the sweet-scented vernal grass, anthoxanthum od — 
ratum. Itis the same substance which is the cause of the 
sweet smell of the woodruff, asperula odorata 3 and the melix 
lot, melilotos officinalis. It is also the flavoring ingr 
in th : 
e mat wein ot the Germans, which is perfumed with — 
woodruff, i 
Until lately, nothing was known about coumarin, except 
that it was a colorless crystalline body, having the formula— 
C,H,0,. 
The crystals of coumarin appear very beautiful under the 
influence of polarized light. The image of some 
coumarin, which had been fused and allowed to crystallizes 
plate of glass, was then thrown upon the screen, and the 
being polarized by the aid of Nicol’s prisms, the crystals — 
sumed the most gorgeous and varying colors as the pris 
were rotated. 
licylic and acetic acids, The production of salicylic acid 
coumarin was then shown experimentally, the presence of the 
acid ae pore by its yielding a deep purple coloration with 
orid, 
ferric ¢ 
Artificial coumarin was obtained from the hydrid of salicyl | 
By treatment with sodium it yielded hydrid of peg 
this ols tor ne heated with acetic anhydrid, gave sh aceti€ 
aceto-salicyl, This last substance was then distilled wi 
anhydrid and sodic acetate, and when the temperature 
290°, the distillate solidified to a mass of erystals Sel 
coumarin, having all the fragrance and beauty of that 0 
from the tonquin bean. bad mal 
The speaker then submitted that the assertion he had tural 
at an early period of his discourse that there Bie Mad bee 
barrier between organic and inorganic eve Be 
amply proved by the instances he had brought fo ral. cast? 
“i ne had studied together that evening sevel™ ©. 5 
re, § 
. secre animals and vegetables. os 
ony and says note distinctly inorganic than mittens 
bon, and oxygen ? What more distinctly an anima 
