56 
portion, and has a smell like ordinary lacquer, but it never 
dries as the original does. It is brownish black, and slightly 
sticky to the touch. When treated with potash solution it 
forms a bluish black precipitate, but nothing is obtained on 
addition of sulphuric acid to the filtrate. 
When boiled with hydrochloric acid the resin is transform- 
ed into a substance elastic while hot, something like the mass 
obtained when heated sulphur is dropped into cold water. 
When boiled with nitric acid, nitrous fumes are given out, and 
the mass gradually becomes yellow, and finally a beautiful 
orange coloured mass was obtained. This mass was washed 
with hot water several times and then treated with absolute 
alcohol; the mass was to a great extent soluble in the 
alcohol, leaving behind a small quantity of a yellowish body 
(which I think to be part not sufficiently acted upon by the 
acid.) This alcoholic extract forms a beautiful yellow pre- 
cipitate with both nitrate of silver and acetate of lead. I took 
a quantity of alcoholic extract, precipitated it with acetate of 
lead, and the precipitate was thoroughly washed with abso- 
lute alcohol and then decomposed by means of dilute 
sulphuric acid. (It might be better to decompose this salt 
with sulphuretted hydrogen, but we cannot do so on account 
of reducing action of this gas.) The mass was dissolved 
again in absolute alcohol, then separated from sulphate 
of lead. 
Now then this separated alcoholic extract was again pre- 
cipitated by sugar of lead, and after filtering and washing, 
the precipitate was dried partially in an air-bath and carried 
under the receiver of an air-pump and dried over sulphuric 
acid. 
This lead salt exploded when heated. The amount of 
lead was estimated as oxide by igniting it with nitric acid. 
