

— 120 — 



J. Houben 1 ) now has endeavoured to make use for this purpose of 

 Grignard's magnesium compounds, which, as is well known, react with 

 alcohols, with formation of halogen magnesium alcoholates: — 



R O H -f R ± Mg I = R • O Mg I -f R x H. 



These are now converted with acetic anhydride or other an- 

 hydrides (or their chlorides) into the esters, according to the following 

 equation : 



R . O Mg Hlg + (C H 3 • C 0) 2 O = R • O • C O C H 3 + C H 3 C O O Mg Hlg. 



In esterifying tertiary alcohols, only the chlorine magnesium com- 

 pounds could be used successfully; ethyl-, methyl-, or benzylmagnesium 

 chloride gave about the same results, viz., a yield of 93 to 98 °/o ester. 

 Products absolutely free from chlorine could only be obtained with 

 methyl magnesium chloride. In this manner there were produced acetic 

 esters of geraniol, linalool, terpineol, isoamyl alcohol, thymol and terpin, 

 and further also the propionic esters of linalool and terpineol. 



The author's opinion that terpinyl acetate can only be produced by 

 his method, is, however, not correct, as we have obtained this ester 

 also very conveniently and in abundant quantity by boiling with acetic 

 anhydride. 



Borneol. From their researches on benzyl and phenyl borneols, 

 and their dehydration-products, A. Haller and E. Bauer 2 ) come to 

 the conclusion that there are formed on the one hand a -benzyl 

 camphenes (provided that the designation a for the substitution in the 

 C H 2 -group of camphor is retained) and on the other ^-benzyl and 

 phenyl camphenes, if the position at the carbon atom of the radical 

 C O is designated with fi. From secondary a-benzyl borneol 



/CH-CH 2 - C 6 H 5 



C 8 H 14\ ! 



^CH-OH 



the production of a-benzyl camphene can be accomplished in various 

 ways, but the angles of rotation of the individual products are dif- 

 ferent. By abstracting water by means of phthalic anhydride, a hydro- 

 carbon of Md -\- 8° 20' is obtained; by formic acid one of Wn-f- 5° 20' 

 and by pyruvic acid one of [«]p -j- i° 25'. From tertiary /?- benzyl 

 borneol ___ 



/ 1 2 



*) Berl. Berichte 39 (1906), 1736. Comp. also German Patent No. 162863, 

 Chem. Centralbl. 1905, II. 1060. 



2 ) Compt. rend. 142 (1906), 677. 



