— 154 — 



73°; a-fencholenic nitrile, however, is very difficult to saponify; the 

 a-fencholenic acid thereby formed is liquid; a D"j-3 2 °35'- The authors 

 now attempted, on the strength of earlier examinations by Czerny 1 ) 

 to produce a-fencholenic acid from bromofenchone by the action of 

 alcoholic potash. The resulting acid, however, could not be looked 

 upon as a-fencholenic acid, although the properties of most of its 

 derivatives agreed with those of the a-acid. There was, rather, formed 

 in the first place a new 7-fencholenic acid. The principal difference 

 between the two acids lies in the rotatory power (a-acid a D-)~32 35', 

 ^-acid «p -|~52°30 / ) and in the formation of a ketonic acid C 8 H 12 3 , 

 which was only obtained from the ^-fencholenic acid. The amides 

 (m. p. 113 to 1 1 4 ) and the hydrochlorides (m. p. 90 ) of both acids, 

 however, have the same melting points respectively. The lactones 

 obtained by treating the acids with concentrated sulphuric acid, as well 

 as the glycols formed by their reduction with sodium and alcohol, are 

 identical, and it may therefore be taken for granted that the ^-acid is 

 extraordinarily easily converted into the a-acid. The lactone C 10 H 16 O 2 

 of the b. p. 122 to 123 (9 mm. pressure) melts at 77 to 7 8°; the 

 glycol C 10 H 20 O 2 boils between 158 to 161 (11 mm. pressure) and 

 melts at 58 to 6o°. Finally, the oxide C 10 H 18 O produced from the 

 glycol of the 7-acid was also identical with the glycol of the a-acid. 



Diosphenol. As mentioned by us in our last Report 2 ), Semmler 

 and McKenzie have by their examinations established the degradation 

 and the synthesis of diosphenol. Against this in our opinion entirely 

 justified claim of these two authors, I. Kondakow 3 ) attempts in two 

 long articles to assert his priority, by characterising the results obtained 

 by Semmler and his collaborator, with a reference to his (Kon- 

 dakow's) earlier work, as almost wholly a confirmation of his own 

 experiments. Kondakow only admits as really new the formation 

 of a - isopropyl - a' - methyl - n - adipic acid by oxidation of the glycol 

 C 10 H 20 O 2 . To Kondakow' s reproach that Semmler had, moreover, 

 without justification entered a strange working sphere, the latter 

 emphasises in his reply 4 ), that the last work of the Russian scientist 

 on buchu camphor 5 ) dates from the year 1901. When subsequently, 

 in 1905, that is to say fully 4 years afterwards, a work of Kon- 

 dakow on menthols 6 ) was published, (in which certainly buchu oil 

 had partly served as crude material), the synthesis of buchu camphor 



*) Berl. Berichte 33 (1900), 2287; Report April 1901, 69. 



2 ) Report October 1906, 140. 



8 ) Chem. Ztg. 30 (1906), 1090, 1100. 



4 ) Ibidem, 1208. 



5 ) Acta et commentationes Imp. Universitatis Jurievensis (olim Dorpatensis), 1901. 



6 ) Journ. f. prakt. Chem. II. 72 (1905), 186. 



