232 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
September 21, 1372 
could depend upon, 50 percent, and even 100 per cent, 
of carbolic acid mixed with English creasote or guaiacol 
being quite undistinguishable. Professor Eliickiger 
distinctly states that his test enables us to detect the 
presence of carbolic acid in creasote, but I cannot agree 
with that statement; in my hands, at least, it does not 
answer. 
In a recent number of the 1 Chemical News ’ a test 
was given by means of bromine. When bromine water 
is added to an aqueous solution of carbolic acid, a white 
oil is speedily deposited, but when it is added to an 
aqueous solution of pure creasote or guaiacol, a brown oil 
is the result. This test, however, fails, as might be 
expected, to distinguish carbolic acid when mixed with 
creasote ; in all cases a brown oil is deposited, which 
is useless for the purpose we have in view. 
Strong solution of ammonia dissolves carbolic acid 
readily (the solution turning blue after a few hours’ 
exposure to the air) while guaiacol and creasote (both 
English and German) are only partially soluble, or at any 
rate would require a very large quantity of ammonia 
to effect complete solution. I found German creasote 
.to be much more soluble than either guaiacol or Eng¬ 
lish creasote, namely, one-half dissolving without 
much difficulty, when treated with about six times its 
bulk of strong liquor ammonia. 
The English creasote so treated did not lose above 
one fourth of its bulk. 
The portion of creasote insoluble in the ammonia was 
.separated; the ammoniacal solutions being diluted and 
neutralized with acid, also deposited the creasote which 
had been dissolved. These different samples were 
examined carefully. 
The English, which had dissolved in ammonia when 
distilled, smelt better and more like guaiacol than the 
original sample of creasote before treatment; it also 
boiled nearer 210°, all distilling under 220°. 
The portion which did not dissolve in ammonia when 
distilled, yielded a liquid which had a much more of¬ 
fensive smell and appeared to contain more of the im¬ 
purities of the original creasote than the soluble por¬ 
tion; its boiling-point was, however, lower and almost 
identical with the first portion. Both samples were 
insoluble in glycerine. The German creasote, which 
did not dissolve in ammonia, retained its old boiling- 
point, but no longer dissolved in glycerine. The por¬ 
tion soluble in ammonia was carefully examined; its 
boiling-point was found to be almost the same as the 
normal creasote. Its smell was good; almost identical 
with guaiacol, but it was soluble in glycerine. Attempts 
made to detect the presence of carbolic acid quite 
failed. 
Other means were then tried to procure evidence of 
the presence of carbolic acid in creasote. 
It is stated in the paper first referred to (Ph. Joun. 
No. 92, p. 789), that while the phenol series yields with 
nitric acid trinitrophenol or picric acid, guaiacol or 
creasote yields only oxalic acid. If this were true, we 
might hope to detect the presence of picric acid, 
and. thus prove that carbolic acid had been contained 
in the creasote. 
To determine this point, the creasote to be examined 
was first dissolved in about twice its weight of glacial 
acetic acid, and then added to an equal bulk of strong 
nitric acid, sp. gr. 1500. (If the creasote to be examined 
is added direct to the nitric acid, the action is so violent 
and unmanageable that no definite result can be arrived 
at). The capsule containing the mixture must be 
placed on a sand bath, and evaporated almost to dryness. 
AVhen pure carbolic acid has been used, the product is a 
bright yellow crystalline mass (pure picric acid), but in 
.the case of guaiacol or creasote (both English and Ger¬ 
man), the product is a brown, sticky, semi-resinous mass. 
This product, treated with a little hot water, is trans¬ 
ferred to a large test tube or small retort, and a gramme 
•or so of ordinary bleaching powder added, and a gentle 
heat applied, the result being the production of chloro- 
picrin if picric acid is present, which can be distin¬ 
guished without doubt or difficulty by its most peculiar 
and repulsive smell, or can be separated by distillation 
if thought necessary; but if oxalic acid is the product 
of the reaction, no chloropicrin is produced, but simply 
a liberation of chlorine. I am sorry to say that in all 
my trials I obtained chloropicrin, and not a trace of 
chlorine, and all other attempts made to isolate oxalic 
acid from the product of the reaction of nitric acid upon 
guaiacol or creasote having quite failed I have come 
to the conclusion that the statement respecting the differ¬ 
ent products obtained from creasote and carbolic acid 
by oxidation is incorrect. Picric acid, or some isomer 
of that body, is the product of the reaction in all 
cases, irrespective of the source of the creasote (or 
carbolic acid) being from coal-tar or from wood. 
Attempts were made to distinguish between carbolic 
acid and creasote by the production of sulpho-conjugated 
acids. But the acid produced by creasote appears to be 
too much like the sulpho-carbolic acid for anything like 
a distinguishing test to be founded upon that reaction. 
I regret that the results of my experiments are of a 
negative rather than of a positive nature, but I trust, 
unsatisfactorily as they confessedly are, they may prove 
of service to any one who may wish to follow up the 
examination of the true nature of creasote. 
There is, I think, no doubt that the English creasote 
is a genuine product of wood tar. It is, however, not a 
homogeneous body, but probably consists of several 
isomeric substances; while the fact of the German 
(beech-wood) creasote dissolving in glycerine led me to 
suspect the presence of carbolic acid, but all my attempts 
to demonstrate its presence have quite failed, and I can 
only conclude that beech-wood tar yields a creasote to a 
certain extent different to that yielded by either guaiacum 
or pine-wood tar. In some of its chemical properties 
German creasote much nearer approaches guaiacol than 
the English; its smell is almost identical, and its 
boiling-point very much nearer and more constant. 
When English and German creasote are dissolved 
in strong caustic soda, and then diluted, the English 
becomes milky, and yields, when distilled, an appre¬ 
ciable quantity of light oil; the German, on the con¬ 
trary, remains bright and yields no oil, which would 
tend to prove the German to be in some respects a purer 
article than the English. 
The fact of the German creasote dissolving in gly¬ 
cerine ought to be explained, either by proving that 
beech-wood creasote really possesses this property, or 
has obtained it from some peculiarity in the inode of 
manufacture. 
It would be very interesting to examine some of 
Reichenbach’s original creasote, if an authentic sample 
could now be obtained; perhaps some member of the 
Conference may be able to assist in this matter. 
To Mr. Myles Smith, our chemical assistant, I must 
express my best thanks for many of the suggestions, and 
nearly the whole of the experiments here detailed have 
been performed by him with great care and accuracy. 
Mr. Morson : Our attention has naturally been called 
to the extensive sale of carbolic acid under the name of 
creasote ; and we are very well satisfied to find that by 
the mixture of glycerine we have had some chance of 
detecting it. We have examined some specimens from 
German sources, and we have invariably found them to 
dissolve in glycerine, and we have also found that there 
is a peculiar coloration in all the creasote so prepared—a 
tendency to a red coloration, whilst in all pure creasote, 
or what we consider to be so, the tendency is to become 
brown. This is excessively remarkable ; for some which 
is designated as pure white creasote, and which I ob¬ 
tained from an excellent source in Paris, though per- 
, fectly white became perfectly red in the course of about 
three months, and is perfectly and entirely soluble in 
