274 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
resulting solution filtered and mixed in a separating funnel with 
40 c.c. of strong sulphuric acid, when an oily liquid rose to the 
surface. The contents of the separating funnel were then 
extracted six times with well- washed ether, the ethereal extracts 
filtered and distilled from a water-bath. 
The remaining liquid was submitted to fractional distillation, 
and after three fractionations, the bulk distilled over between 
140-150° C. The lower boiling portions were treated with 
phosphoric anhydride and separately fractionated. 
They yielded three fractions, which were collected at the 
following temperatures : — 
(1) 110°-125° 
(2) 125°-150° 
(3) 150°-165° 
The main portion of the distillate from the first fractionation 
weighed 4 '7 grms., and had an odour which closely resembled that 
of a known sample of propionic acid. 
It was boiled with water and barium carbonate until neutralised, 
the resulting solution filtered and evaporated on a water-bath to 
a syrup. Its behaviour now was curious. Some of the syrup was 
dissolved in a little alcohol and ether was then added, when it was 
reprecipitated apparently in the same condition. A drop of the 
syrup exposed for several hours also dried up to a gummy mass 
which refused to crystallise. But the main quantity of syrupy 
liquid suddenly solidified on stirring. The resulting crystalline 
mass was washed with cold alcohol two or three times and was 
then dried. It behaved in precisely the same way as a known 
specimen of barium propionate. Thus it readily dissolved in cold 
water ; and on adding alcohol to a concentrated solution thus ob- 
tained, brilliant crystals separated out, which, when examined 
under the microscope, had very characteristic forms, being either 
quadratic octohedra or combinations of the octohedra with quad- 
ratic prisms. Its analysis, however, showed that it contained small 
quantities of an impurity which obstinately adhered to it, as the 
following figures show : — - 
