94 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
The well which proved to be the source of the epidemic 
was the only one which was contaminated among the wells 
examined, yet we cannot but realize that there are distrib- 
uted in the small towns and on the farms many such 
wells, which are in the condition of a gun which is not 
supposed to be loaded, but is liable to “ go off” at any time 
with disastrous results. 
There is no doubt that little or no attention is given to 
the water and milk supplies as long as Providence in some 
mysterious manner protects those who tempt her in many 
ways, but when the penalty is paid, it is a costly one, for 
instruction furnished by “ experience ” is in many cases 
very expensive. 
DIPHENYL ETHER DERIVATIVES. 
ALFRED N. COOK. 
(1) HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 
(2) PREPARATION OF A NITRO-METHYL DERIVATIVE. 
(3) OXIDATION OF THE METHYL GROUP TO AN ACID AND 
THE PREPARATION OF SOME OF THE SALTS OF THE 
ACID. 
(4) REDUCTION OF THE NITRO GROUP TO FORM A BASE AND 
THE FORMATION OF THE PLATINUM SALT. 
(5) BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
Historical: — In the year 1854, Dr. Iv. List and Dr. H. 
Limpricht (Ann. 90, 190) w r ere studying the products of the 
destructive distillation of copper benzoate and succeeded 
in identifying the principal product as phenyl benzoate. 
During the process of purification they separated from 
this by fractional distillation a substance to which they 
assigned the formula, C 22 H 9 0 2 , and called it phenyl oxide. 
(Dr. John Steinhause had previously studied the products 
of the distillation of copper benzoate (Ann. 53, 91), but 
did not detect the substance in question). Limpricht 
