a 
NATURAL DEPOSIT OF ALUMINIUM SUCCINATE IN TIMBER. 331 
hour; the loss indicated 25-089 per cent. of water. Heated again 
for one hour from 110° C. to 120° C. no further loss was found to 
occur, neither when heated for one hour from 145° C. to 150° C. 
The powder was then ignited before the blowpipe until constant 
in weight, when it was found that 43:464 per cent. had been 
burnt away, leaving 31:447 per cent. of alumina ; 100 per cent. 
of alumina being found, as stated above, in this ignited residue. 
As no other acid was detected other than succinic acid, with the 
exception of a trace of-acetic acid, we may consider the compo- 
sition to be 
Organic matter as 
Succinic acid = 43:464 per cent. 
Alumina 31°447 m 
Water 25-089 
100-000 
From these figures we may look upon the material as a basic 
aluminium succinate, corresponding to a ferric succinate, and 
having the following formula : 
Al, (0,H.O); ‘Al, GO. 
On ignition we get 2 Al,O, and C,,H..0> removed by burn- 
ing, which, calculated out and allowing the same percentage of 
water as obtained by experiment as above, we have 
Organic matter taken as (C,.H,,0.) =44484 per cent. 
meee StALOs) ke ee SAT ay 
Water’... e ote 25-089 
100-000 
(We take the atomic weight of alumina as 373) 
It would appear that in no previous investigations on natural 
salts of succinic acid found in vegetation has aluminium succinate 
_ ' The water present has been ignored in the formula, as we do not know 
8 ere form it is present, or whether it is an essential component of the 
terial. The amount found indicates a quantity which, if combined, 
vould Tepresent between nine and ten molecules of water. 
