— 204 — 



liquor. After dissolving in ether and evaporating the solvent, the 

 base, when distilled in hydrogen current passed over at 185 to 185,5°; 

 congealing immediately into a camphoraceous crystalline mass of 

 powerful smell, reminding of raw, slightly decomposing fish-intestines and 

 also slightly, of bornylamine. The base readily attracted atmospheric 

 carbon dioxide. In a sealed tube it melted at 90 to 92°, and the 

 following derivatives were obtained from it: a double salt of platinum 

 chloride in pale yellow, thin tetrahedra, which turned black but did 

 not melt at 230 to 235°; a picrate in yellow needles, m. p. 205 to 207°, 

 a urea in glassy lustrous small needles, m. p. 167,5 t0 168 , and a 

 phenyl sulpho-urea in quadratic prisms., m. p. 154°. 



Phenols and Phenol Ethers. 



In a previous Report 1 ) we discussed the differences discovered by 

 Semmler in the behaviour of the propenyl- and allyl-compounds to- 

 wards formic acid; propenyl-compounds, such as anethol, becoming com- 

 pletely resinified when boiled with this acid, while the allyl-compounds 

 are not attacked. In connection with this matter, Balbiano 2 ) calls atten- 

 tion to a paper which was published by him some time ago, and then 

 commented upon by us 3 ). In this paper he described the differences 

 in the behaviour of allyl- and propenyl-compounds towards mercuric 

 acetate, and he has now worked out this subject up to the point of 

 a separation-method. When a cold saturated solution of mercuric 

 acetate is allowed to act upon allyl-compounds, the result is the for- 

 mation of aceto- mercuric additive products of the formula 

 R • C 3 H 5 • Hg(OH) • C 2 H 3 2 , while propenyl-compounds yield the corre- 

 sponding glycols R*C 3 H 5 (OH) 2 , the mercuric acetate being reduced to 

 mercurous acetate or mercury: 



Hg(C 2 H 3 2 ) 2 +JH 2 p. HgC 2 H 3 2 + C 2 H 4 2 + OH 

 Hg(C 2 H3 2 ) 2 + 2H 2 = Hg+2C 2 H 4 2 + 20H 

 R.C 3 H 5 4-20H = R.C 3 H 5 (OH) 2 



Balbiano has now discovered that this reaction can be very easily 

 used to separate a mixture of allyl- and propenyl-compounds. By 

 allowing a known quantity of mercuric acetate to react upon the mix- 

 ture the aceto-mercuric compound of the allyl-derivatives is formed 

 exclusively; the propenyl- derivative remains unchanged and can there- 

 fore be separated, as it is soluble in ether and volatilises with steam. 

 The aceto-mercuric compound of the allyl-derivative, on the other 

 hand, is practically insoluble in ether and does not volatilise with 

 water-vapour. The allyl-derivative can be recovered from the aceto- 



1 ) Report November 1908, 51. 



2 ) Berl. Berichte 42 (1909), 1502. From a copy kindly sent to us. 

 8 ) Berl. Berichte 30 (1903), 3575; Report April 1904, 100. 



, 



