841 



by means of a pipette, and were purified by suitable processes which 

 it is unnecessary to particularize. These bases, though they were 

 found to vary very considerably in their boiling-points and some of 

 their properties, were very similar in other respects. They were 

 transparent colourless oils, which were all of them lighter than water, 

 and refracted light strongly. Their taste was hot, resembling that 

 of oil of peppermint. They all exhibited strong alkaline reactions, 

 and neutralized the acids perfectly, forming crystallizable salts. The 

 most curious circumstance respecting them was, that they wereappa- 

 rently quite different from the series of bases obtained from either 

 bones or coal, and contained no aniline. 



One of these bases was isolated and subjected to analysis. It 

 boiled between 150° and 155° C. Its formula was found to be 

 Cjo Hg N, which differs only by two equivalents of hydrogen from 

 nicotine. The only obstacle which has hitherto prevented the se- 

 paration and examination of each of these bases individually, has 

 arisen from the difficulty of procuring them in sufficient quantity. 

 Not that beans when distilled yield bases in so much smaller quan- 

 tities than bones and other animal substances ; but as both bones and 

 coal are distilled on the largest scale for commercial purposes, their 

 crude oils may be easily procured in any quantity, and from these 

 their respective series of bases may be readily prepared. In regard 

 to the bases from beans and other seeds, the case is quite different; 

 as the scientific chemist is compelled to distil these substances on^ 

 purpose, an operation which cannot be conveniently conducted in a 

 laboratory, since it requires an apparatus so large as to be almost upon 

 a manufacturing scale. 



Oil'Cake. — As the Pkaseolus comjnunis was regarded as the type 

 of the Leguminoste, oil-cake, or the expressed seeds of Linum usita- 

 tissimum, was selected from that numerous class of plants in which 

 the starch of the Gramine^ is replaced by oil. The products of its 

 distillation were very similar to those from beans, containing how- 

 ever more ammonia and a somewhat smaller proportion of oily bases, 

 which, though similar, appeared to differ from those of the pre- 

 ceding series. They were also equally devoid of aniline. 



Wheat, Trilicum hybernum, and subsequently peat from the 

 neighbourhood of Glasgow, were also destructively distilled. Both 

 of these substances, in addition to ammonia, yielded a series of oily 

 bases, which also contained no aniline. 



Distillation of wood, — The author proceeds to state, that through 

 the kindness of an extensive pyroligneous acid manufacturer he 

 was enabled to examine considerable quantities of the crude acid 

 liquor obtained from the destructive distillation of beech, oak, and 

 other hard woods. The stems and larger branches of trees are alone 

 employed for this purpose. He found to his surprise that this acid 

 liquor contained scarcely a trace of ammonia or of any other organic 

 base, showing that the woody portions of the limbs and stems of 

 trees are nearly devoid of nitrogenous matter, in which respect they 

 differ extremely from peat, which in general contains two per cent, 

 of nitrogen ; and he considers this circumstance as perhaps calculated 



