1889.] 



Skatole in the Vegetable Kingdom. 



213 



form as a distinct species, under the name of Geltis dysodoxylon 

 (' Ennm. of Ceylon Plants,' p. 267). Bat botanists generally sink it 

 with the Java species in Geltis cinnamomea. Thwaites says : ' The 

 freshly cut timber of the tree possesses a powerful and very disgusting 

 odour.' I have not come across any other notices of this singular 

 property. But the evidence, though indirect, goes to show that your 

 wood is correctly named and what it professes to be. Geltis belongs 

 to the JJrticaceoe, y 



The total quantity of the wood I was able to obtain amounted to 

 rather less than 200 grams. 



A small quantity of the finely powdered wood was moistened with 

 water and distilled with steam. The first fractions of the distillate 

 contained white particles which dissolved in the larger quantity of 

 water that was subsequently condensed. The distillate was examined 

 for naphthylamine, but none could be detected. 



On submitting to steam distillation a larger quantity of the 

 powdered wood, and extracting the aqueous distillate with light 

 petroleum, a substance possessing an intolerable odour of faeces was 

 obtained. It crystallised from water in colourless scaly crystals, 

 which were dissolved by ether, alcohol, and benzene. The aqueous 

 solution was not precipitated by a saturated solution of picric acid 

 until the liquid had been strongly acidified with hydrochloric acid, 

 when a dark red precipitate appeared. The dilute aqueous solution 

 was not coloured or otherwise aifected by the addition of fuming 

 nitric acid or by a mixture of sodium nitrite and sulphuric acid, neither 

 did it colour a pine shaving moistened with hydrochloric acid. By 

 warming with hydrochloric acid the aqueous solution was coloured 

 cherry-red. By these reactions the absence of indole was conclusively 

 proved, but it seemed probable that the substance might be' an indole- 

 derivative. 



The picrate was obtained by precipitating the aqueous solution 

 (prepared from the ethereal extract of the distillate) strongly acidified 

 with hydrochloric acid, with a saturated solution of picric acid. The 

 dark-red precipitate was collected and distilled with dilute ammonia. 

 The recovered substance was again converted into the picrate by a 

 repetition of the process described above, and this was collected, 

 washed with cold water, and dried over sulphuric acid. The dark- 

 red needles of the picrate melted with some decomposition between 

 159 — 161° C. In a portion of this salt the nitrogen was deter- 

 mined by Dumas' method, the gas being collected through the limb of 

 a Sprengel pump. [Weight of picrate taken 0'0258 gram; corrected 

 volume of nitrogen obtained 3"2 c.c. Percentage of nitrogen in the 

 picrate 15'5. Calculated for C 9 H 9 N.C 6 H 2 (N0 2 ) 3 OH, 15*5 per cent, of 

 nitrogen.] 



It was thus proved that the substance possesses the composition of 



