96 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
should be of such a character as to preclude, so far as possible, 
the occurrence of any chemical reaction. For these reasons 
solutions of lithium chloride in amyl alcohol were selected as 
objects of the present investigation. For each solution the fol- 
lowing physical constants were determined: specific gravity, 
specific viscosity, refractive power for sodium light and electric 
conductivity. 
MATERIALS AND METHODS OP RESEARCH. 
The amyl alcohol employed was boiled with concentrated 
caustic potash to decompose any compound ethers which it 
might contain, then washed with water and then with a solution 
of phosphoric acid to remove possible traces of organic bases, 
then dried with fused potassium carbonate, and finally fraction- 
ally distilled and again dried with amhydrous copper sulphate 
and once more distilled. A sufficient amount of the distillate 
coming over between 130,5® and 131.0® was preserved tO' answer 
for all the measurements described in the present paper,, so that 
the latter are strictly comparable among one another. 
The amyl alcohol prepared in this way had the specific grav- 
ity D%f® — .80949, 80571; index of refraction (D line) at 
18. 3®==1. 40767; specific viscosity-=3.50 at 21.1® (water=l);; resist- 
ance at 25® = 4.524X10^ ohms per cubic millimetre, laevo-rotary 
power for polarized light = 1.95 degrees. 
The lithium chloride was prepared from a carefully purifiedi 
sample of carbonate which showed in the spectroscope traces 
sodium, but no other impurity. Its strongly acid solution was 
evaporated to dryness on the water bath, the residue moistened 
with concentrated hydrochloric acid and dried at 110®. By 
'digestion of this salt with amyl alcohol a concentrated solution 
wms made from which all others were prepared. After filtra- 
tion, which was extremely slow, and during which the moisture 
of the air was, of course, carefully excluded, a knowledge of its 
concentration was arrived at by independent determinations of 
the contained chlorine and lithium, which afforded at the same 
time a needed guarantee that no notable amount of basic salt 
was ] 3 resent, * To obtain further evidence on this point, 5 c.c. of 
the concentrated and perfectly clear solution was shaken up 
with water, colored with the methyl orange, and titrated with 
tenth-normal hydrochloric acid. The first 0.10 c.c. of the 
latter imparted an acid reaction to the mixture. Therefore 
basic salt was either absent or present in quantities too small to 
affect the quantitative results obtained. 
