
OF THE FIXED OILS IN CONTACT WITH SULPHUR. 369 
12:688 4¥z carbonic acid, and 
4-657 grains of the most volatile oil gave 
I 
5127 =... ~~ water. 
15:762 Nee carbonic acid, and 
5°501 grains of an oil less volatile than the preceding gave 
IT 
6292 ... water. 
12:185 ak carbonic acid, and 
4-191 grains of another portion of oil gave 
tl 
4720 ... water. 
Which correspond to the following results per cent. : 
lip 105 THe 
Carbon, .:... .s 45°08 78:79 79-95 
Hydrogen, . . . 12:20 12°72 12-75 
All these oils, when treated with fuming nitric acid, yielded an abundant 
precipitate of the sulphate of barytes; but as the results of the combustion were 
not constant, no quantitative determination was made. 
The action of precipitants, however, upon this oil, afforded a more satisfac- 
tory method of obtaining some of its constituents. It gives, with corrosive subli- 
mate, a bulky white precipitate, and with bichloride of platinum, a yellow com- 
pound, the characters of which vary slightly, according as it is prepared from the 
more or less volatile portion of the oil. Nitrate of silver and acetate of lead, 
mixed with the alcoholic solution of the oil, produce only a slight cloudiness, but 
on boiling the solutions, the sulphurets of silver and lead are deposited. 
The Mercury Compound. In order to obtain this substance in the pure state, 
the oil was dissolved in alcohol, and an alcoholic solution of corrosive sublimate 
added. The precipitate which fell was collected on a filter, and washed with 
ether, until the oil was thoroughly extracted, for which purpose a considerable 
quantity of ether is required. It is then boiled with a large quantity of alcohol, 
which dissolves a part of it, and the solution being filtered hot, allows the com- 
' pound to deposit, on cooling, in the pure state. It is then in the form of a white 
crystalline powder, having a very fine pearly lustre, and exhibiting under the 
microscope crystals of a very peculiar form. They are six-sided tables, two oppo- 
site angles of which are rounded off, so as to give them a very close resemblance 
to the section of a barrel. It possesses, even after long-continued washing with 
ether, a peculiar slight sickening smell, which becomes more powerful on heating, 
and its powder irritates the nose. It is insoluble in water, which moistens it 
with difficulty. It requires several hundred times its weight of boiling alcéhol 
for solution, and is almost entirely deposited, on cooling, in microscopic crystals. 
In ether, it is almost insoluble. When heated, it is decomposed with the evolu- 
