A NEW ORGANIC BASE FROM COAL-TAR. 129 
Odorin, obtained by UNvERDORBEN* from Dippel’s animal oil. According to this 
chemist, Dippel’s oil, which is obtained by several successive distillations of the 
oleum cornu cervi, is a mixture of four different bases, to which he gives the 
names of Odorin, Animin, Olanin, and Ammolin. Ofthese, the two first constitute 
nineteen-twentieths of the whole oil, and the odorin, which resembles picoline in 
its solubility in water, is obtained by simply distilling the oil and collecting the 
product as long as it dissolves. These results, however, have been called in 
question by subsequent observers; REICHENBACH, especially, asserts that he was 
unable to separate any basic compounds, and considers the substances obtained 
by UNVERDORBEN to be mixtures of empyreumatic oil with ammonia. As, how- 
ever, the properties which UNVERDORBEN has attributed to odorin, approximate 
in some respects to those of picoline, I thought it desirable to ascertain the ex- 
istence of this substance, and whether or not it is identical with picoline. In 
order to prepare odorin, I rectified the oleum cornu cervi, and then distilled the 
product; but on allowing the first drops of oil to fall into water, they were not 
dissolved as UNVERDORBEN has asserted, but floated unchanged upon the surface. 
Finding this process unsuccessful, I agitated the crude oil with dilute sulphuric 
acid; the acid fluid immediately acquired a very deep reddish-brown colour, and 
when separated from the oil, and supersaturated with potass, a semisolid viscid 
mass separated from the fluid. This, when distilled with water, yielded a mix- 
ture of several oily bases, while a dark coloured resinous substance, probably 
UNVERDORBEN’S Fuscin, was left in the retort. The mixed bases which I thus 
obtained, formed an exceedingly small fraction of the oil employed. They were 
purified by several successive rectifications, and generally in a method similar to 
that employed for picoline, and the first portions of the product collected apart. 
It then constituted a colourless oil which became brown in the air, dissolved 
readily in water, and presented an odour similar to, though not quite the same 
as, that of picoline. It gave with chloride of gold a dirty yellow precipitate, 
which dissolved in hot water, and deposited, on cooling, in the pulverulent form, 
and with bichloride of platinum, a compound in red wart-like crystals. By an ac- 
cident in the laboratory, the small quantity of this substance which I had pre- 
pared for analysis was destroyed, so that the evidence of their identity cannot be 
considered as sufficient. The characters of odorin, as given by UNVERDORBEN, 
are not perfectly identical, either with those of picoline, or the base which I ob- 
tained. Odorin, according to UNVERDORBEN, boils at about 212°, and its salts are 
oleaginous compounds which distil in the form of an oily fluid, whereas those of 
picoline are mostly crystallizable. I am at present engaged with the examina- 
tion of these substances. 
It is obvious, from the observations contained in Horrman’st paper, that 
* Poggendorf’s Annalen, vol. xi. + Liebig’s Annalen, vol. xlvii. 
