68 
MR. STENHOUSE ON THE EXAMINATION OF THE 
Calculated numbers. 
I. 
II. 
III. 
16 C 1222*960 
41*04 
41*29 
8 H 99*836 
3*35 
3*63 
1 I3aO 956*880 
32*11 
31*90 
31*94 
31*77 
7 0 700*000 
23*50 
23*18 
2979*676 
100*00 
100*00 
These numbers give Ci 0 H 8 O 7 + BaO for the rational formula of orsellesiate of 
baryta. 
Orsellesic Ether. 
When (alpha) orsellic acid is boiled for some hours in strong alcohol an ether 
compound is formed. This ether is most advantageously prepared from the gela- 
tinous precipitate obtained from the lime solution by muriatic acid. This precipitate, 
when it has been cautiously dried, is to be boiled for six or seven hours in strong 
alcohol. The solution is then to be cautiously evaporated on the water-bath till 
nearly the whole of the alcohol has been driven off ; care, however, being taken not 
to evaporate it to dryness, otherwise much of the ether would be converted into a 
resinous matter. The residue is then to be boiled with a considerable quantity of 
water and filtered. On the cooling of the liquid the ether precipitates in long flat 
needles, which have at first a yellowish colour from adhering resin, but when they 
are treated with animal charcoal and recrystallized they are quite colourless. This 
ether cannot be distinguished in its external properties from the lecanoric and the 
erythric ethers. When it is distilled with dry potash it gives off alcoholic vapours, 
and orcin remains in the retort. Its reactions with ammonia and hypochloride of 
lime are similar to those of orsellesic acid. It might naturally have been expected 
that, as orsellic acid was the acid employed in its formation, this ether would have 
been the orsellic ether. From the results of the subjoined analysis I have been 
unable to deduce the formula which the orsellic ether ought theoretically to have, 
while the analyses agree pretty well with the formula of the orsellesic ether. 
I am therefore disposed to regard this compound as the orsellesic ether, the more 
so as I have ascertained that by merely boiling orsellic acid in water without the 
presence of a base, it is resolved into orsellesic acid. In a subsequent part of this 
paper, in the case of evernic acid, an instance of the formation of an ether of a second 
acid different from that of the acid originally put into the alcohol appears to occur. 
I. 0‘327 grm. ether dried at212°FAHR., gave 0’734 carbonic acid and 0T842 water. 
II. 0*3195 grm. ether gave 0*716 carbonic acid and 0*177 water. 
Calculated numbers. Found numbers. 
20 c 1528*700 
61*38 
I. 
61*24 
II. 
61*13 
13 H 162*233 
6*51 
6*26 
6*15 
8 0 800*000 
32*11 
32*50 
32*72 
2490*933 
100*00 
100*00 
100*00 
The rational forn^ula of orsellesic ether, therefore, appears to be C^gHgOy-f-C^ H 5 O. 
