114 Report of Schimmel § Co. 1921. 



A. Grun 1 ) has published a paper on the constitution of the acids of colophony resins. 

 The author discusses the relations between the structural formulae of pinene-hydro- 

 carbons and abietic acids; Similarly as the latter might be considered to have been 

 formed from pinene-hydrocarbons, constitutional formulas might also be deduced for 

 certain resin-acids from the structures of the camphene and the fenchene, which are 

 present in small quantities in oils of turpentine. 



D. H. Brauns 2 ) has prepared the menthylesters of the higher aliphatic acids by heating 

 the respective acid chloride with menthol. The latter was best obtained by the action 

 of thionyl chloride upon the aliphatic acid. In this way Brauns prepared the following 

 esters :-menthyllaurateC22H420 2 ; liquid at ordinary temperature; d^ 0.8915; [a] D — 46.07° 

 mol.refr. 2 oo 155.9; menthylmyristate C^ri^A; m. p. 21 to 22° (Hilditch 3 ) m. p. 32°) 

 df^ 0.882; [«] D — 42.33°; mol. refr. 20O 155.1 ; menthylpalmitate C 26 H 5 o0 2 ; m. p. 32 

 d 2 4 °° 0.8848; [«] D — 30.10°; mol. refr. 20o 154.2; menthylstearate C 28 H 5 40 2 ; m. p. 38 to 39° 

 d 4 ^ 0.8665; [«] D — 36.60°; mol. refr. 45D 154.6; menthylarachate e 3 oH 5 80 2 ; m. p. 55° 

 dg 0.8566; [«] D — 30.63°; mol. refr. 55 o 138.0. 



A paper by M. Gomberg and C. C. Buchler 4 ) concerns the preparation of various 

 benzylesters and of other benzyl derivatives by means of benzyl chloride. Pure 

 preparations in good yields (up to 85 per cent.) were realised when the benzyl chloride 

 and the aqueous solution of the salts of organic acids were heated for longer periods 

 while being stirred. In this way were prepared: — benzylbenzoate (b. p. 310 to 315°; the 

 boiling point of another preparation obtained from the dry salt was 323°; the boiling 

 point of Claisen 5 ) was 323 to 324° [corr.]); benzylacetate (b. p. 205 to 210°); behzyl- 

 propionate (b. p. 220 to 230°); benzylbutyrate (b. p. 235 to 242°); benzylphenylacetate 

 (b. p. 204 to 210° [20.5 mm.]); benzylcinnamate (b. p. 240 to 244° [25 mm.]); benzyl- 

 salicylate (b. p. 211 to 214° [22.5 mm.]); dibenzylsuccinate (m. p. 47 to 48°). The formic, 

 oxalic and phthalic acids did not yield any benzylesters. 



With sodium phenolates (phenol and «- and /?-naphthol), treated in the same way, 

 benzylchloride gave mixtures of benzylethers and of benzylphenols; the constants of 

 these preparations are not stated. Benzylcyanide (with 50 to 60 per cent, yield) was 

 likewise obtained by heating (for 1 to 4 hours) benzylchloride with sodium cyanide in 

 aqueous solutions. Finally the authors established that benzylchloride was more quickly 

 converted into benzylalcohol by caustic soda than by sodium carbonate. 



In the synthesis of camphor- and fenchone-ketones, which consist only of 5-membered 

 and 6-membered rings, dry distillation of the calcium and lead salts of dicarboxylic acids 

 (homocamphoric acid and analogues) had so far been applied in most cases. The 

 necessarily-high temperatures might in bodies of the classes of tri- and tetraceanic 

 systems lead to scission of the ring. L. Ruzicka and W. Kuhn 6 ), therefore, tried the 

 sodium condensation of such esters of dicarboxylic acids which proceeds at lower 

 temperature, in the first instance with the ester of the homocamphoric acid (I). This 

 compound (m. p. 170 to 172° [12 mm.]) the authors prepared by heating ethyl camphor- 

 carboxylate (II) with sodium ethylate in an autoclave for 24 hours up to 200° and 

 treating the product with concentrated hydrochloric acid. The sodium condensation of 

 the ester of homocamphoric acid (boiling for four hours 4 g. of ester with 0.45 g. of 



l ) Zeitschr. d. Deutschen Ol- u. Fettind. 41 (1921), 40. — 2 ) Journ. Americ. chem. Soc. 42 (1920), 1478. — 

 3 ) Journ. chem. Soc. 101 (1912), 192. — *) Journ. Americ. chem. Soc. 42 (1920), 2059. — B ) Berl. Berichte 20 

 (1887), 647. — 6 ) Helvet. chim. acta 3 (1920), 752. 



