SOLID FATTY ACIDS OF COCO-NUT OIL. 279 
fractional distillation ; the first distillation showed no trace of acrolein, whilst 
some previous experiments on the fractional distillation of fatty acids had to be 
abandoned owing to the continual production of this substance. Water, how- 
ever, clung to the ether fractions with great obstinacy, and was with difficulty 
removed even by frequent treatment of the ethers with phosphoric anhydride. 
_ This frequent treatment with phosphoric anhydride, along with the neces- 
sary drying of the distilling apparatus between each fractionation, entailed very 
considerable loss in ethers, so that the subjoined table of ether fractions, giving 
the weights of the various fractions after the ethers had been separated as 
much as was possible by distillation, must be accepted as representing only 
approximately the acids in coco-nut oil. 
The quantities and boiling points of the seventeen ether fractions so obtained 
are represented on the diagram, the area of each blue rectangle representing 
the mass of the distillate between the temperature corresponding to the two 
ordinates. (Plate XX.) 
Ether Fractions. 
B Ether boiling point between 160° and 170° C.= 6 grammes. 
Ces ahe: f 170) on 180 dO 8) 
E ‘ . 180 190 Oe a8 
r z 190 200 neive 
D . 2 200 205 Diltess ials 
A , ‘ 205 RO. aoe, 
F is 3 210 220 ia 
: 220 230 Spun 
H ‘ % 230 240 i 
i ‘ : 240 250 or haw 
J a > 250) 260 16 
. 4 260 270 ae 
8 N - 270 O75 Sl ee 
M ° P , 275 280 ae BA 
N M > 280 285 Bie 
O : 4 285 290 Ane 
P i “ 290) 300 17 
The ether marked B, boiling between 160° and 170° C., was now saponified 
by boiling with caustic soda, the solution of soap decomposed by sulphuric acid, 
the fatty acid separated, and washed to free it from sulphate of soda and excess 
of sulphuric acid used, then boiled with water and carbonate of baryta, filtered, 
the baryta salt crystallised out and purified by fractional crystallisation. 
The baryta salts from ethers, ranging from B to L, were all obtained in this 
Way ; the remaining four, M to P, were prepared by saponifying the ether, and 
after separating the fatty acid as before, dissolving this in alcohol, and boiling 
