NOTES ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 137 
Aldehydes and hydroxyseleno-naphthene. R. Lesser and R. Weiss’), 
have obtained characteristic condensation- products by boiling the alcoholic or acetic 
solutions of certain aldehydes with hydroxyseleno-naphthene. With furfurol an orange- 
coloured mass with m. p. 145 to 147° was obtained, and with salicylic aldehyde small, 
brownish-yellow, lustrous rods, m.p. 206 to 207°. (Enanthol and citral yielded oily 
condensation-products, which were not investigated further. 
Aldehydes and pyruvic acid. E. Lubrzynska and J. Smedley’) have con- 
densed piperonal (heliotropin), anisic aldehyde, cinnamic aldehyde, and benzaldehyde 
in faintly alkaline solutions at ordinary temperature with pyruvic acid into @-unsaturated 
a-ketonic acids. Oxidation of these ketonic acids with the calculated quantity of 
hydrogen peroxide in a neutral solution afforded the corresponding (-unsaturated 
phenylolefinic carboxylic acids, carbonic acid being split off. When pyruvic acid and 
piperonal were left standing in an alkaline solution for 8 days at room-temperature, 
dihydroxymethylenebenzalpyruvic acid resulted; a body crystallising in yellow needles, 
m.p.163°. By the same treatment, anisic aldehyde yielded methoxybenzalpyruvic acid, 
m.p. 130°, and cinnamic aldehyde, cinnamal pyruvic acid, in red crystals, m.p. 73°, 
which were slowly converted into a yellow modification with a m.p. of 103 to 104°. 
Aldehydes, electrolytic reduction. About two years ago J. Tafel and 
W. Schepss*) described the electrolytic reduction of anisic aldehyde by means of 
cadmium cathodes. Schepss*) has now reduced certain other aldehydes by the same 
method. From cenanthol he obtained a liberal yield of n-heptane; benzaldehyde 
afforded toluene, protocatechuic aldehyde, homopyrocatechol; vanillin, creosol (homo- 
pyrocatechol-3-methylether; m.p. of the picrate 111 to 111,5°) and piperonal a pre- 
viously unknown substance, homopyrocatechol methylenic ether, b. p. 197 to 198° 
(741,5 mm.). 
Salicylic aldehyde. At the meeting of the American Chemical Society at 
Milwaukee on 24 to 28 March 1913, J. J. Skinner®) discussed the isolation and iden- 
tification of salicylic aldehyde in the soil, and reported on experiments made with the 
object of determining the effect of this organic constituent of the soil upon the growth 
of vegetation. In cultivation experiments in nutritive solutions, salicylic aldehyde in a 
concentration of 1: 100000 proved to be extremely detrimental to wheat, maize, cabbage 
and chick-peas; while in concentrations of 1:10000 to 1:20000 it was fatal to the 
plants. It was noxious in cultures containing phosphate, nitrate or potash, either by 
themselves or in combination. Its presence in the soil or in sand, even in small pro- 
portions, has a harmful effect. Skinner has tested 45 samples of non-productive and 
30 of productive soils from various parts of the United States for the presence of 
Salicylic aldehyde, and has found the substance to occur in 17 of the former and 3 
of the latter. 
Cinnamic aldehyde. N. Kishner®), in his work on the pyrazoline bases, refers 
to a conversion of cinnamic aldehyde into phenylcyclopropane. Cinnamic aldehyde 
and hydrazine hydrate in absolute alcohol in the warm give rise to phenylpyrazoline (I), 
*) Berl. Berichte 46 (1913), 2640. — 2%) Biochem. Journ. 7 (1913), 375; Chem. Zentralbl. 1914, 1. 561. — 
*) Berl. Berichte 44 (1911), 2148. — *) Ibidem 46 (1913), 2564. — 5) Chem. Ztg. 87 (1913), 1485. — °) Journ. 
russ. phys. chem. Ges. 45 (1913), 949, 957; Chem. Zentralbl. 1918, II. 2129, 2130. 
