154 THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [August 19 , 1871. 
3)lcm can be solved very perfectly, if not economically. 
Another process is that of Tessier de Mothay, in which 
the inanganate of potassium is decomposed by a current 
of superheated steam, and afterwards revived by being 
heated in a current of air. A company has lately been 
formed in New York to apply this process to the produc¬ 
tion of a brilliant house-light. A compound argand 
burner is used, having a double row of apertures ; the 
inner row is supplied with oxygen, the outer with coal- 
-gas or other combustible. The applications of pure 
-oxygen, if it could be produced cheaply, would be very 
numerous, and few discoveries would more amply reward 
the inventor. Among other uses, it might be applied to 
the production of ozone free from nitric acid by the 
action of the electrical discharge, and to the introduc¬ 
tion of that singular body in an efficient form into the 
arts as a bleaching and oxidizing agent. Tessier de 
Mothay has also proposed to prepare hydrogen gas on 
the large scale by heating hydrate of lime with an¬ 
thracite. 
The researches of Roscoe have made us acquainted, 
for the first time, with metallic vanadium. Berzelius 
•obtained brilliant scales which he supposed to be the 
metal, by heating an oxychloride in ammonia, but they 
Iiave proved to be a nitride. Roscoe prepared the metal 
by reducing its chloride in a current of hydrogen, as a 
light grey powder, with a metallic lustre under the 
microscope. It has a remarkable affinity both for nitro¬ 
gen and silicon. Like phosphorus, it is a pentad, and 
the vanadates correspond in composition to the phos¬ 
phates, but differ in the order of stability at ordinary 
temperatures, the soluble tri basic salts being less stable 
than the tetrabasic compounds. 
In organic chemistry the labours of chemists have 
Been of late largely directed to a group of hydrocarbons 
which were first discovered among the products of the 
•destructive distillation of coal or oil. The central body 
round which these researches have chiefly turned is 
benzol, whose discovery will always be associated with 
the name of Faraday. With this body naphthaline and 
-anthracene form a series, whose members differ by C 4 H 2 , 
and their boiling-points by about 140°. The recent 
researches of Liebermann have proved, as was before 
suspected, that chrysene is a fourth member of the same 
.series. I may add that ethylene, which boils at about 
70°, corresponds in composition and boiling-point to a 
lower member of the same series. Kekule propounded 
•.some time ago with great clearness the question as to 
whether the six atoms of hydrogen in benzol are equiva¬ 
lent, or on the conti'ary play dissimilar parts. Accord¬ 
ing to the first hypothesis, there can be only one modi¬ 
fication of the mono- and penta-derivatives of benzol; 
while three modifications of the hi-, tri-, and tetra-deri- 
■vatives are possible. On the second hypothesis, two 
modifications of the mono-derivatives are possible, and 
in general a much larger number of isomeric compounds 
-than on the first hypothesis. Such is the problem which 
lias of late occupied the attention of some of the ablest 
^chemists of Germany, and has led to a large number of 
new and important investigations. The aromatic hydro- 
•carbons, toluol, xylol, etc., which differ from one another 
by CH 2 , have been shown by Fittig to be methyl deri¬ 
vatives of benzol. According to the first of the two 
hypotheses to which I have referred, only one benzol 
-and one methyl benzol (toluol) are possible, and accord¬ 
ingly no isomeric modifications of these bodies have been 
discovered. But the three following members of the 
. series ought each to be capable of existing in three dis¬ 
tinct isomeric forms. The researches of Fittig had 
.already established the existence of two isomeric com¬ 
pounds having the formula C S H 10 —methyl toluol ob¬ 
tained synthetically from toluol, and isoxylol prepared 
by the removal of an atom of methyl from the mesytelene 
of Kane. The same chemist has since obtained the third 
modification, orthoxylol, by the decomposition of pa- 
raxylylic acid. These three isomeric hydrocarbons may 
be readily distinguished from one another by the marked 
difference in the properties of their trinitro-compounds, 
and also by their different behaviour with oxidizing 
agents. 
Baeyer has prepared artificially picoline, a base iso¬ 
meric with aniline, and discovered by Anderson in his 
very able researches on the pyridine series. Of the two 
methods described by Baeyer, one is founded on an ex¬ 
periment of Simpson, in which a new base was obtained 
by heating tribromallyl with an alcoholic solution of 
ammonia. By pushing further the action of the heat, 
Baeyer succeeded in expelling the whole of the bromine 
from Simpson’s base in the form of hydrobromic acid, 
and in obtaining picoline. The same chemist has also 
prepared artificially collodine, another base of the pyri¬ 
dine series. To this list of remarkable synthetical dis¬ 
coveries, another of the highest interest has lately been 
added by Schiff—the preparation of artificial coniine. 
He obtained it by the action of ammonia on butyric 
aldehyde (C 4 H 8 0). 
Valuable papers on alizarine have been published by 
Perkin and Schunck. The latter has described a new 
acid—the anthraflavic—which is formed in the artificial 
preparation of alizarine. Madder contains another 
colouring principle, purpurine, which, like alizarine, 
yields anthracene when acted on by reducing agents, 
and has also been prepared artificially. These colour¬ 
ing principles may be distinguished from one another, 
as Stokes has shown, by their absorption bands; and 
Perkin has lately confirmed by this optical test the in¬ 
teresting observation of Schunck, that finished madder 
prints contain nothing but pure alizarine in combination 
with the mordant employed. 
Hofmann has achieved another triumph in a depart¬ 
ment of chemistry which he has made peculiarly his own. 
In 1857 he showed that alcohol bases, analogous to those 
derived from ammonia, could be obtained by replace¬ 
ment from phosphuretted hydrogen; but he failed in his 
attempts to prepare the two lower derivatives. These 
missing links he has now supplied, and has thus esta¬ 
blished a complete parallelism between the derivatives 
of ammonia and of phosphuretted hydrogen. The same 
able chemist has lately described the aromatic cyanates, 
of which one only, the phenylic cyanate (CO, C 6 H 5 , N), 
was previously known, having been discovered about 
twenty years ago by Hofmann himself. He now pre¬ 
pares this compound by the action of phosphoric anhy¬ 
dride on phenylurethane, and by a similar method he 
has obtained the tolylic, xylylic, and naphthylic cyanates. 
Stenhouse had observed many years ago that when 
aniline is added to furfurol, the mixture becomes rose- 
red, and communicates a fugitive red stain to the skin, 
and also to linen and silk. He has lately resumed the 
investigation of this subject, and has obtained two new 
bases, furfuraniline and furfurtoluidine, which, like 
roseaniline, form beautifully coloured salts, although 
the bases themselves are nearly colourless or of a pale 
brown colour. The furfuraniline hydrochlorate (C Jr H 1;) 
0 2 N 2 Cl) is prepared by adding furfurol to an alcoholic 
solution of aniline hydrochlorate containing an excess of 
aniline. We have also from Stenhouse a new contribu¬ 
tion to the history of orcin, in continuation of his former 
masterly researches on that body. He has prepared the 
trinitroorcin (C 7 H 5 (N0 2 ) 3 0 2 ), a powerful acid having 
many points of resemblance to picric acid. In connec¬ 
tion with another research of Stenhouse, made many 
years ago, it is interesting to find his formula for 
esexanthron, which was also that of Erdmann, confirmed 
by the recent experiments of Baeyer. 
The interesting work of Dewar on the oxidation of 
picoline must not be passed over without notice. By 
the action of the permanganate of potassium on that 
body, he has obtained a new acid which bears the same 
relation to pyridine that phthalic acid does to benzol. 
Thorpe and Young have published a preliminary notice 
of some results of great promise, which they have ob- 
