NOTES AND ABSTRACTS IN CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACY. 
645 
loid by the following method :—The salt is dissolved in water acidulated with 
sulphuric acid, and the quinine precipitated by a solution of carbonate of soda; 
the liquor is evaporated to dryness without filtering, the residue treated with 
water, the quina collected on a filter, washed until the filtrate ceases to react 
with nitrate of silver, and then dried at 100° C., and weighed. The filtered 
liquor and washings are evaporated to dryness, and the residue treated with 
alcohol, to remove the quina present. The alcoholic liquid is evaporated, dried 
at 100° C., weighed, and then calcined to deduct the inorganic matter taken up 
by the spirit. 
When a, sulphuric solution of quinine is precipitated by ammonia or soda, 
the precipitate must be washed until the washings cease to affect chloride 
of barium, because some subsulphate of quina is always thrown down with the 
precipitate. To recover the quina dissolved by washing, the liquors are evapo¬ 
rated to dryness and the residue treated with alcohol. M. Sestini gives the 
following formulae for the arseniates of quinine analysed by him :— 
2 (C 20 H 24 N 2 0 2 ) As 0 4 H 3 + 8 H 2 6 
2 (Co 0 Ho 4 N 2 0 2 ) As 0 4 H 3 + 6 Ho O 
C 20 H 24 N 2 0 2 As 0 4 H 3 + 2 H 2 O 
Some Combinations of Carbolic Acid. 
M. J. Romei has described* several compounds of phenol with bases, which 
present, in some respects, the characters of definite salts. 
Fhenate of Potash.— This salt may be prepared in two ways, by solution 
and by fusion. If alcoholic solutions of 94 parts of phenol and 56 parts of 
hydrate of potash are mixed and evaporated, after cooling a crystalline mass is 
obtained of small micaceous plates, transparent and very refractive, which, 
dried over oil of vitriol, constitute pure phenate of potash. To prepare the 
salt by fusion, 374 parts of hydrate of potash are added little by little to 62'6 
parts of phenol in the fused state, until the mass ceases to be perfectly homo¬ 
geneous. The phenate of potash obtained by either of these processes always 
occurs in white transparent micaceous scales, which absorb moisture from the 
air, and become first yellowish and'then reddish-brown. It fuses between 94° 
and 95° C., and crystallizes again on cooling. It is very soluble in water and 
alcohol; it also dissolves a little in washed ether, but very slightly in anhydrous 
ether. Phenate of potash contains no water of crystallization, but it always 
retains the water of composition of its respective constituents which cannot be 
separated without decomposing the compound; hence the author regards the 
body as only a molecular combination. The mean of four analyses gave the 
following results :— 
Phenol .... 
Found. 
56-60 
Theory. 
56-60 
Hydrate of Potash 
31*30 
31-40 
Water .... 
12-00 
12-00 
99-90 
100-00 
These numbers give the formula C 6 H 6 0, KHO. The phenate of potash in 
several cases, and principally as a disinfectant, can usefully replace phenol. 
Phenate of Oxide of Copper. —This substance is prepared by reacting with 
an aqueous solution of 12 parts of sulphate of copper on an aqueous solution of 
15 parts of phenate of potash. The solution of the metallic salt should be 
added to the solution of phenate of potash ; by operating differently very vari¬ 
able compounds are obtained. The mixture should be left to repose for 
twenty-four hours. The phenate of copper thus obtained, and dried over sul¬ 
phuric acid, is a green powder, soluble in acids ; it does not fuse, and if heated 
* ‘ Bulletin de la Societe Chiinique,’ Fevrier 1869. 
