211 
on naphthaline. 
milky upon the addition of water, and this milky mixture 
passing unaltered through the pores of the closest filtering 
paper. 
Not miscible with water ; but readily communicating to it 
a light brown colour, and a taste at first sweet, but followed 
by an aromatic pungency. The water acquires alkaline 
properties, and holds ammonia in solution. When poured 
out on a flat surface, it catches fire almost immediately on 
the application of flame, and burns for a time exactly in the 
same manner as a thin stratum of alcohol, the flame being 
blue and lambent, and without smoke ; but after a few 
seconds the flame becomes white, and the liquid begins to 
burn with much black smoke, and with a crackling noise. 
A pint of this dark coloured liquid was submitted to very 
slow distillation in a large glass retort connected with a 
large glass receiver, from the interior of which all communi- 
cation with the external air was excluded by means of a 
common safety valve. The heat was supplied from the 
flame of an Argand gas burner, and was so slight as scarcely 
to inconvenience the naked hand, when held over it im- 
mediately under the bottom of the retort. 
The same degree of heat was applied constantly during 
forty hours ; at the end of which time there had distilled into 
the receiver rather more than half a pint of a liquid, which 
consisted of two perfectly distinct portions, which, however, 
had uniformly passed over together from the very com- 
mencement of the distillation. 
The uppermost of these portions, in appearance, resembled 
pale olive oil, and amounted to not quite a quarter of a 
pint. The lowermost portion resembled water, but was not 
mdcccxxi. E e 
