DISTILLATION OF SPERMACETI. 237 



an excess of carbonate of soda, was evaporated to dryness in a 

 water-bath, and the dry mass pulverized was treated with abso- 

 lute alcohol, which dissolved the soda-salt and not the carbonate 

 of soda; from this the alcoholic solution was separated by filtra- 

 tion, and this last, evaporated to dryness, furnished the salt 

 perfectly pure. 



Silver-salt. — This salt was formed by a double decomposition 

 of the salt just described and nitrate of silver. The soda was 

 dissolved in water, and to this was added a solution of nitrate 

 of silver, which produced a white flocculent precipitate, the 

 salt in question. This precipitate was thrown on a filter and 

 well washed with warm distilled water, and dried at 212° in 

 the dark. This silver-salt when burnt in a porcelain crucible 

 gave the following results : 



Exp. 1. — 0.332 gramme silver-salt gave 0.098 gramme silver. 

 Exp. 2. — 0.389 gramme silver-salt gave 0.117 gramme silver. 

 Exp. 3. — 0.5765 gramme silver-salt gave 0.1705 gramme silver. 



Out of these the following percentage of silver and oxide 

 of silver in the salt was calculated. 



Exp. 1. — 29.56 silver; 31.75 oxide of silver. 



Exp. 2.-29.39 silver; 31.57 oxide of silver. 



. — 29.59 silver; 31.77 oxide of silver. 



From the same analyses the atomic weight of the anhydrous 

 acid was calculated to be from 



Exp. 1.— 250.00 ) 



Exp. 2.— 251.52 I Mean 250.24 



Exp. 3.-249.36 J 



The silver-salt was now analyzed with bioxide of copper to 

 ascertain the quantity of carbon and hydrogen that it contained. 



1. — 0.4735 gramme silver-salt burnt with the bioxide of cop- 

 per gave 0.910 gramme carbonic acid and 0.3595 gramme water. 



2. — 0.483 gramme silver-salt burnt with the bioxide of copper 

 gave 0.934 gramme carbonic acid and 0.3705 gramme water. 



From these analyses we find in 100 parts of the salt : 



1 2 Mean. 



Carbon 52.84 53.15 53.00 



Hydrogen 8.42 8.52 8.47 



Oxygen 7.04 6.63 6.83 



Oxide of silver 31.70 31.70 31.70 



100.00 100.00 100.00 



