1881.] Mr. C. G. Williams. On fi-Lutidine. 159 



IV. " On /3-Lutidine." By C. Greville Williams, F.R.S. 

 Received November 30, 1881. 



In the "Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Paris " for June 5, 1880 

 there appears a notice of a paper read before the Russian Chemical 

 Society, by MM. Boutlerow and Wischnegradsky, in which they state, 

 among other things, that by the action of alkalies on cinchonine they 

 had obtained quinoline (chinoline) almost pure, and a volatile colourless 

 liquid alkaloid boiling constantly at 166°, having the formula C 7 H 9 N ; 

 and which they say appears to be identical with the base obtained 

 by me in distilling cinchonine with potash, and also with the lutidine 

 of Anderson. Of the identity of the base obtained by them with /5-luti- 

 dine there can be no doubt ; the boiling point (166°) given by them 

 being to half a degree the mean of the range (163° to 168°) given by 

 me in my "Researches on Isomeric Alkaloids."* 



With regard to the identity which they assume between lutidine and 

 (3-lutidine, it is evident that they have not seen my paper last quoted, 

 or they would hardly have ignored the mass of facts which I have 

 adduced to prove the isomerism, and not identity of the two bases. 



In the " Bulletin of the Chemical Society " of Paris, Nos. 5 and 9, for 

 September 5, 1880, p. 210, M. W. Oechsner de Coninck publishes an 

 investigation on the lutidine, collicline, and parvoline obtained as above 

 from cinchonine ; his only reference to my work being to the " Ann. 

 Chim. Phys.," xlv, p. 488, f in which he says that I have shown the 

 presence of a base possessing the composition of lutidine. He then 

 proceeds to give analyses, density, and vapour-densities of /3-lutidine, 

 apparently unaware that they were simply repetitions of what I had 

 done many years before. I gave the analysis of the base and the 

 platinum salt in the " Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.," previously quoted. I 

 also gave the analyses of the platinum salt of collidine in the same 

 paper. The specific gravity of /3-lutidine at 0° was given by me in 

 my " Researches on Isomeric Alkaloids " as 0*9555 ; M. de Coninck 

 makes it 0'95035 at the same temperature. M. de Coninck gives the 

 vapour- density as determined in Yon Meyer's apparatus as 3'80 ; I 

 gave it as 3*65 in two experiments exactly agreeing with each other, 

 and also made in Yon Meyer's apparatus. £ The formula C 7 H 9 N" 

 requires 3*699. In my paper " On Isomeric Alkaloids" I gave as the- 

 result of a determination by Dumas' method 3787. M. de Coninck 

 also states as a new result that the platinochloride of the lutidine 



* "Proc. Roy. Soc," vol. 13, p. 305, June, 1864. 



t This is a precis of my paper, " On the Volatile Bases produced by Destructive 

 Distillation of Cinchonine," "Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh," xxi, part ii, April, 

 1855. 



X " Chemical News," March 14, 1879. 



