SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
315 
till, in fact, the carefully-washed product contained no more silver. The 
final product has a light grey colour, and is decomposed when heated, ethyl- 
sulphide being evolved. If it is previously strongly heated with sodium 
chloride no ethyl sulphide is given off, the grey powder turns blue, and 
the original ultramarine, with all its properties, is formed. In order to 
show that the ethyl really entered into the constitution of the ultramarine, 
the products of the action of heat on the body were collected in mercury 
chloride; the crystalline precipitate had the composition (C 2 H 5 ) 2 S,H g Cl 2 , 
from which it is apparent that the ethyl actually formed a constituent. 
Similar reactions were observed with the iodides of other alcohol radicles 
and with some quaternary ammonium iodides. — ( Compt . rend, lxxxvii. 30.) 
Oxidation of Quinine with Potassium Permanganate . — According to the ex- 
periments of S. HoogewerfF and W. A. Yan Dorp, during the oxidation of 
quinine by this method a part of the nitrogen is removed in the form of 
ammonia. Some oxalic acid is formed, as well as a nitrogenous base, which 
separates in transparent crystals, and melts at 244°. This new body is 
tribasic, and has the formula C 8 H 5 N0 6 . A number of its salts have been 
prepared. Quinidin, as well as cinchonine, appears to furnish the same 
product when oxidized, and it appears to be tricarbopyridinic acid, 0 5 H 2 N 
(COOH) 3 . — (. Per . chem. Gesell. xii. 158.) 
Lactucone. — N. Franchimont reports his having obtained a considerable 
quantity of lactucarium out of Lactuca altissima , from De Vrij, and his 
having induced Wigman to prepare the lactucone from it, and to compare it 
with betulin. He obtained it in the form of microscopic needles, insoluble 
in water, soluble with difficulty in alcohol, easily soluble in petroleum, and 
melting at 296°. Analysis pointed to the formula C u H 24 0, which does not 
accord with those adopted by' Senior and Ludwig. An acetyl derivative 
could not be obtained ; and phosphorus pentasulphide, by the withdrawal of 
water, left a hydrocarbon of the form C 14 H 22 . Lactucone appears to be 
homologous with camphor and the zeorine of Paterno. — ( Per . chem. Gesell. 
xii. 10). 
Eikosylene. — This body is a derivative of the paraffin of coal tar. E. 
Lippmann and J. Hawliczek find that nearly all the paraffin met with in 
commerce contains oxygen. The specimens on which they operated were 
treated with sodium to remove it. To introduce chlorine into these purified 
products they employed phosphorus pentachloride, which was added to the 
solution of the paraffin in carbon tetrachloride, and heated with it. In this 
way a chloride having the formula O 20 H 39 Ol was obtained, which, when dis- 
tilled under ordinary atmospheric pressure, gave up its chlorine in the form 
of hydrogen chloride, the hydrocarbon to which they have given the name 
of eikosylene, and which has the formula 0 20 H 38 , remaining isolated. It 
possesses all the characters of an olefine, and forms a second chloro-derivative, 
having the composition C 20 H 38 C1 2 . Eikosylene is consequently homologous 
with cetylene C 16 H 30 , and maybe regarded as a high member of the acetylene 
series. — ( Per . chem. Gesell. xii. 62). 
The Transformation of Stat'ch into Dextrose in the Cold. — Starch, it is 
known, is slowly transformed into dextrose when boiled for a long time with 
water. Kiban has made some observations which seem to show that the 
same result may be arrived at in the cold, though much more gradually. A 
