THE EESIN OE EICUS EUBIGIN'OSA. 
53 
Actimi of Chlorich of Phosphorus on Sycocerylic Alcohol. 
For the purpose of preparing the chloride of sycoceryl, we employed pentachloride 
of phosphorus and a solution of sycocerylic alcohol in benzol. At common tempera- 
tures no reaction took place, but when the temperature was elevated to about 60° C, 
(140° Fahe.), hydrochloric acid was given ofT, and the pentachloride gradually disap- 
peared. After the disengagement of hydrochloric acid had ceased, the liquid was 
removed from the remaining pentachloride and washed with water, and afterwards with 
an alkaline solution. After the benzol had been got rid of by keeping the liquid for 
some time in a warm place, a \iscid residue was obtained, which was soluble with great 
difficulty in alcohol, but easily soluble in ether or chloroform. These solutions, after 
evaporation, deposited this substance again in its original sticky state. In the first 
experiments, which were carried out only on a very small scale, a crystalline substance 
was formed besides the amorphous greenish compound. This crystalline substance 
differed in its properties from the original alcohol. It therefore seems probable that a 
slight excess of pentachloride (or the phosphoric acid formed during the reaction) 
destroys to a great extent the chloride of sycoceryl formed during the reaction ; or at 
all events, phosphate of sycoceryl, which is produced simultaneously and predominates, 
cannot be separated from the chloride. We are therefore at present unable to give a 
description of the chloride of sycoceryl in its pure state. 
Benzoate of Sycoceryl. 
Chloride of benzoyl dissolves with the greatest facility a large quantity of sycocerylic 
alcohol at common temperatures, but no hydrochloric acid is disengaged ; probably, 
therefore, no reaction takes place at ordinary temperatures, but if heat is applied the 
liquid soon commences to give off hydrochloric acid. When the evolution of hydro- 
chloric acid has ceased, the mixture is allowed to cool, when it solidifies to a fibrous 
crystalline mass. Any excess of chloride of benzoyl is removed after the reaction by 
throwing the mixture into a solution of bicarbonate of potassium, whereby a resinous 
mass separates. The whole being kept warm for several hours, all the chloride of 
benzoyl is decomposed. During this process a slight smell, somewhat like benzoate of 
ethyl, is perceptible. The resinous mass, after removal from the saline liquors, is 
washed several times rvith warm water ; it is now free from benzoic acid and chloride 
of benzoyl. On boiling the resinous mass with absolute alcohol, a trace of a yellowish 
secondary product dissolves, lea^dng the principal quantity undissolved, which then 
appears as a white cr^^stalline mass. 
The product thus obtained, on being boiled with a large quantity of ether, and the 
solution allowed to cool, is procured in small crystals, which are soluble with difficulty 
in ether. Absolute alcohol dissolves only a trace of this substance, and when boiled 
with it deposits the dissolved part on cooling in minute spherical aggregations of crystals, 
which under the microscope are seen to be prismatic. 
MDCCCLX. I 
