356 Mr. E. Schunck. 



I shall return to these products on a future occasion. 



Phyllocyanin does not dissolve very readily in ammonia. 



Action of Aniline. — When a solution of phyllocyanin in aniline is 

 slowly evaporated, a residue is left consisting partly of dark granules 

 of phyllocyanin, partly of pale purplish-brown crystalline needles, 

 arranged in tufts and rosettes. The latter may be either a compound 

 with aniline, or a product of the action of aniline on phyllocyanin at 

 the ordinary temperature ; it is formed in minute quantities only. A 

 more energetic action takes place at higher temperatures. When 

 aniline and phyllocyanin are heated together in a sealed tube to 

 130° and kept at that temperature for some time, a complete 

 change takes place. The contents of the tube on being poured into 

 alcohol dissolve in part only, a crystalline mass being left undissolved, 

 the nitrate from which is greenish-brown, and shows the peculiar 

 spectrum of the first product of the action of alkalis on phyllocyanin. 

 The crystalline mass on the filter dissolves partly on treatment with 

 boiling alcohol, and the filtered liquid deposits on cooling a quantity 

 of white crystalline needles in star-shaped groups, which are soluble 

 in ether and chloroform, but insoluble in dilute acids and alkaline 

 lyes. The portion of the crystalline mass left undissolved by boiling 

 alcohol dissolves in chloroform. The solution is red, and shows a 

 very characteristic spectrum, consisting of three fine but very dis- 

 tinct bands in the red, of which the central one is the strongest, one 

 very dark band covering the yellow and part of the green, which, 

 when the solution is so far diluted as to show only two bands in the 

 red, splits up into two nearly equal bands, and lastly, one dark band 

 at the edge of the green and blue. The chloroformic solution leaves, 

 on evaporation, a serai- crystalline residue, having a purplish hue. 



It might be supposed that on treatment with ammonia, phyllo- 

 cyanin would yield products similar to those formed by the action 

 of aniline, but this is not the case. When phyllocyanin is heated 

 with strong liquor ammoniae in a sealed tube to 140°, bodies are 

 formed which are similar to if not identical with those due to the 

 action of fixed alkalis. 



Compounds of Phyllocyanin. — From what has been stated above, it 

 may be inferred that phyllocyanin plays the part of a weak base, that 

 is, it combines with strong acids, the compounds however being un- 

 stable, and easily decomposed even by water. Like other weak 

 bases, it may also act as an acid, though for reasons before men- 

 tioned, it may be doubted whether, in combining with bases, it does 

 so without undergoing change. Notwithstanding its nearly neutral 

 character, however, phyllocyanin is capable of yielding compounds of 

 great comparative stability, into which metals and acids, especially 

 organic acids, enter as constituents. 



When phyllocyanin is dissolved in boiling glacial acetic acid, it 



