— i4i — 



By their recent investigations Semmler and McKenzie 1 ), 

 have succeeded in accomplishing the degradation as well as the syn- 

 thesis of diosphenol. They found the melting point of the repeat- 

 edly recrystallised diosphenol at 83 to 84 , the boiling point at 109 

 to no° (10 mm. pressure). It is inactive, dissolves gradually in lyes, 

 reduces other bodies, is readily oxidised, and imparts in alcoholic 

 solution a pink colour to fuchsin solution decolorated by sulphurous acid. 

 When diosphenol was acetylated, benzoylated, or brought into reaction 

 with carbanil, one oxygen atom always reacted, the other one remained 

 intact. The phenyl urethane of diosphenol melted at 41 . The oxime 

 (m. p. 1 2 5 ) could not be converted into the nitrile. When heated in 

 a sealed tube with hydrochloric acid to 150 to 180 , thymol is formed 

 quantitatively (b. p. 115 [12 mm. pressure]; d 2 Qo 0,9777; n D 1,5219; 

 phenyl urethane, m. p. 107 ), with a small quantity of carvacrol. With 

 semicarbazide and phenylhydrazin , diosphenol gives but a feeble 

 reaction. According to Semmler diosphenol represents a monocyclic 

 saturated keto- alcohol C 10 H 16 O 2 . He draws this conclusion from the 

 oxidation with ozone, whereby a-isopropyl-y-acetyl-n-butyric acid is 

 formed. This would explain that 9 carbon and 15 hydrogen atoms 

 are linked as follows: — 



CH< 



XH Q 



^CH Q 



CH 



H 9 C 



H C 



CCH 3 



whilst the position of the last carbon (or hydrogen) atom is shown by 



the reduction into the glycol C 10 H 20 O 2 . This is oxidised into a-iso- 



propyl-a'-methyl-n-adipic acid, which favours the acceptance of a 



6 -ring with the methyl- and isopropyl-groups in para-position. Semmler 



consequently accepts for diosphenol, as the first hydrated phenol 



proved with certainty, the following formula: — 



/CH 3 

 CH< 



CH 



H C 



CO 



H 2 CL j CO 

 CCH, 



*) Berl. Berichte 39 (1906), 1158. 



