— 173 — 



permanganate (calculated for i mol. phenol ether 5 atoms oxygen) into 

 the carboxyl group, when he obtained white needles of the composition 

 C 9 H 10 O 4 , whose melting point lay at 182 , that is to say about the 

 melting point of veratric acid. If Thorns' view were correct, dimethyl-a- 

 resorcylic acid should have been formed, or otherwise, if the methylene- 

 dioxy group had been split up in the reverse direction, veratric acid 

 ought to have been formed. Richter now succeeded in establishing 

 the identity of the above acid with dimethyl - a - resorcylic acid, and 

 to correct the statements found in the literature. The dimethyl-a-resorcylic 

 acid obtained by Richter from methylated orcine by oxidation, also 

 melted at 182 , and not, as stated in the literature, at 175 to 176 . 

 On mixing the two acids the melting point was not depressed, so 

 that the acid obtained from the methylated phenol ether is identical 

 with dimethyl-a-resorcylic acid. This also proves that on splitting up 

 isomyristicin, the oxygen atom situated in para-position towards the 

 propenyl - group is removed, and that the methoxyl - group originally 

 existing in myristicin stands in meta^position towards the allyl-group, 

 which proves the possibility of converting myristicinic acid into gallic 

 acid. The constitution which Thorns accepted for myristicin, is there- 

 fore correct. 



Acids. 



Wallach 1 ) has produced a series of acids which can be derived 

 from simple cyclic hydrocarbons, and has described them and a large 

 number of their derivatives. They contain the radicals cyclopentyl-, 

 C 5 H 9 -, cyclohexyl-, C 6 H 11 -, methylcyclohexyl-, C 7 H 13 -, cycloheptyl-, 

 C 7 H 13 -, and menthyl-, C 10 H 19 -, and are designated by Wallach as 

 "cycloalkyl", or briefly as "cyclyl" -acetic acids. 



1. Compounds from cyclohexanone. Cyclohexanol acetic ester 

 Cio^IigOg 2 ) yields, after abstraction of water and subsequent saponi- 

 fication, two isomeric hexenic acids C 8 H 12 2 : — 



CH — COOH 



CH 2 — COOH 

 CH 2 — CH 2 



(HO)c/ \CH 2 



CH,-CH 2 



j CH — CH 2 



C<^ )CH 2 I. 



CH -CH, 



CH — COOH 

 C H„ — C H., 



C/ / CH 2 IL 



CH 2 -CH„ 



*) Liebig's Annalen 353 (1907), 284. 



2 ) Ibidem 347 (1906), 329; Report April 1906, 129; October 1906, 115. 



