Schunck . — The Chemistry of Chlorophyll . 105 
When fresh green leaves of almost any kind — the effect 
is best seen with young holly or beech leaves — are moistened 
as uniformly as possible with aniline by pouring the liquid 
over them, allowing to drain, pouring back, and so on, the 
leaves being left exposed to the air undergo a remarkable 
change. In a few minutes they generally begin to show 
dark spots of a brown colour, which gradually increase in 
size, until the green colour has at last entirely disappeared 
and given place to a uniform brown ; with the leaves named 
the discoloration is completed in a few hours. The effect 
with green beech-leaves is to make them resemble those of 
the copper-coloured variety, while thicker leaves, such as 
those of the holly and ash, become dark brown, almost black, 
and nearly opaque. Now the chlorophyll of such anilised 
leaves, as they might be called, has almost entirely dis- 
appeared and been converted into another substance with 
totally different and very peculiar properties. In order to 
isolate this substance the leaves, after being exposed to the 
action of aniline for a day or two, are to be exhausted with 
boiling alcohol, which deprives them of the greater part 
of their colour, leaving them of a pale brown. The dark- 
brown extract, which shows some traces of chlorophyll ab- 
sorption-bands, due to unmetamorphosed colouring matter, 
is evaporated or distilled down to a small volume, then mixed 
with water and sufficient hydrochloric acid to take up the 
excess of aniline, after which it is shaken up with ether. The 
latter dissolves nearly all the matter left behind by the acid and 
then appears brown. The ethereal solution after washing with 
water is filtered and evaporated slowly, when it leaves a 
brown crystalline residue. This is treated with a little cold 
alcohol which dissolves a portion with a dark-brown colour, 
leaving a residue, which being filtered off, washed with alcohol 
and dried, is treated with carbon disulphide. The latter 
dissolves nearly the whole, giving a solution of a deep yellow- 
ish-red, which filtered and evaporated spontaneously leaves 
plum- or chocolate-coloured silky needles mixed with some 
fatty matter. The latter may be removed by treatment with 
