
A NEW ORGANIC BASE FROM COAL-TAR. 127 
From these analyses are deduced the following atomic weights :— 
ue II. 
1211°1 1213-7 
These agree sufficiently well with the theoretical atomic weight, which is 
11645. They correspond also precisely with the results of the analysis of the 
aniline salts. The identity of these results.is shewn by the following table of 
the analyses by FritscHe, Zinin, and HorrMan, of aniline from its different 
sources, and of picoline, as well as of the plantinum salts of these substances :— 




Aniline.* Benzidam.* Cyanol. Picoline. Theory. 
Cree 10°08 77°32 76:67 CT 17-29 
re 760 7°50 V72 7-69 7:43 
N = 14:98 14°84 15°62 15:14 15°28 
100°31 99°66 100°00 100-00 100-00 
The following are the results for the platinum salts :— 
Benzidam. Kyanol. Picoline. Theory. 
Mean platinum, per cent. 32°501 32°886 32:°533 32:94 
Atomic weight . 1216-1 1170°5 1212°4 1164:5 
The results of all these analyses agree perfectly with one another; but the 
properties possessed by picoline differ from those of aniline, which, whether ob- 
tained from coal-tar, indigo, or nitrobenzid, presents a perfect identity in its 
chemical characters. 
Properties of Picoline. 
Picoline is a perfectly colourless, transparent, limpid fluid, extremely mobile, 
and destitute of viscidity. It possesses a powerful, penetrating, and somewhat aro- 
matic smell, which, when very dilute, is replaced by a peculiar rancid odour, ad- 
hering pertinaciously to the hands and clothes. Its taste is acrid and burning when 
concentrated; but when very dilute, as, for instance, when its vapour is sucked 
into the mouth, it is powerfully bitter, as are also the solutions of its salts. It is 
not changed by exposure to a cold of 0°. Picoline is extremely volatile, and eva- 
porates rapidly in the air. It boils at the temperature of 272°, and the thermo- 
meter remains perfectly stationary during the whole period of the ebullition; it 
is, therefore, much more volatile than aniline, which, according to Horrman, 
boils at 359°. It may be preserved for a long time in a bottle containing only a 
small quantity of it, and which is frequently opened, without becoming manifestly 
coloured ; whereas aniline becomes rapidly brown, and, indeed, cannot easily be 
obtained colourless, except by distillation in a current of hydrogen. The specific 
* Not having’ the original papers of FrirscHe and Zrntw at hand, I extract these two results from 
BrrzeELius’ Arsberattelse, 1844, p. 454, where they are calculated according to C= 75°12, the rest are 
with C=75, but the difference is so small as not to affect the comparison. 
VOL. XVI. PART II. 2K 
