788 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[March 30, 1872. 
of potassium, and leaving the common salt undissolved. 
This on cooling- will deposit the crystals of the chloride 
of 80-90 per cent., like the specimen, brought into the 
United States market. The mother water is now concen¬ 
trated and treated with ether, which dissolves the bromine. 
By adding caustic potash to this ethereal solution, the 
colour at once disappears ; on evaporation, the bromide 
thus obtained is decomposed by sulphuric acid and per¬ 
oxide of manganese, and the pure bromine is distilled 
over, of specific gravity 2966. The bromine and bro¬ 
mides of potassium and sodium have likewise proved a 
great source of revenue; and yet, since the manufacture 
at Stassfurt began, the price of these articles has been 
reduced to a quarter of its former amount. 
The origin of the Stassfurt deposits is yet a groat 
mystery. The grounds for believing that sea-water was 
the prime cause, and that this locality was in former 
ages an estuary of the sea are not very valid ; nor docs 
it seem likely that salt water has been produced from 
saline efflorescences, through which the concentrated 
waters were gradually evaporated, and that the waters 
at a later period were interrupted by a change in the 
configuration of the surface of the country. 
The presence of boracite leads us to suppose that the 
various bodies of salts were deposited after their sub¬ 
jection to an internal heat, which caused the diminished 
hydration mentioned above, the boracic acid being in¬ 
troduced by the eruptive phenomena, whereby hydro¬ 
chloric acid may also have been generated, to which the 
chlorides may owe their existence. It is well known 
that rock-salt is one of the products of volcanic emana¬ 
tions and of springs in volcanic regions, and it has been 
shown also that salt may be traced to a certain depth, 
associated with lavas. 
All brine springs rise up through strata of sandstone 
and red marl. We find in England large beds of rock- 
salt and brine springs, which have been Sowing for 
1000 years. 
In the triassic period we find salt, gypsum and mag¬ 
nesian limestone more or less associated, while the gyp¬ 
sum and salt lie in many localities in the blue clay, 
without the red sandstone. After consideration of the 
subject, I cannot think but that the origin of rock-salt 
is derived from the evaporation of lakes and lagoons 
communicating with the ocean. 
A salt lake on the Abyssinian frontier, exposed to the 
unmitigated rays of the sun, is known to have been 
shrunk into an elliptical basin, seven miles in its trans¬ 
verse axis, which is half filled with water, and the other 
half with a sheet of snow-white solid salt. 
The Dead Sea is known to contain pure salt .in its 
water. 
In the United States the rock-salt deposits of Louisiana 
are of immense depth. In Nevada are salt deposits 14 
feet in thickness and 5 miles square. The salt springs of 
Illinois pass through five strata of coal and then through 
the new red sandstone, and discharge daily thousands of 
gallons .—The Xeiv York Druggists’ Circular. 
proved carbolic acid to be phenylic hydrate, and pro¬ 
nounced it a different body from creasote, Reichenbach 
did not give up the contest, but conducted it with a per¬ 
tinacity which caused a general confusion among che¬ 
mists, a confusion which became quite lamentable, when, 
in 1855, cresylic-hydrate was discovered in coal-tar by 
Fairlie, and which, on account of the near resemblance 
to true creasote, was generally accepted to be identical 
with the compound obtained from beech-wood. 
Many chemists have given their attention since then, 
to the study of these two compounds. As, however, car¬ 
bolic acid, very shortly after its discovery, began to be 
introduced in commerce and sold under the name of 
creasote, it was difficult and at times impossible to pro¬ 
cure the oils obtained from wood-tar. Owing to this 
fact, we read, in the publications of some chemists, of 
results as derived 'from the analysis of creasote, that 
apply to carbolic acid, with which they were in fact 
working, and which they had obtained as creasote. 
Hlasiwetz and Gorup-Besanez, among many others, have 
now cleared up the contested questions, and brought 
light and intelligence into the many contradictory state¬ 
ments which we find in the literature of creasote and car¬ 
bolic acid. We know to-day that two homologues are 
contained in that part of the oil of wood-tar which dis¬ 
solves in caustic potash, and which bear a certain rela¬ 
tionship to the two homologue compounds contained in 
the same part of the oil derived from coal-tar. We are • 
justified in stating that those oils are two distinct and 
"different fluids, for while coal-tar oil contains princi¬ 
pally 
Phenylic hydrate, C 6 H 6 0, and 
Cresylic hydrate, C s H s O, 
wood-tar oil contains 
Guaiacol, C-H 8 0 2 , and 
Creasol, C 8 H 10 O 2 (also called homo-guaiacol). 
The near relationship of phenylic hydrate or carbolic • 
acid to guaiacol, and of cresylic hydrate or cresylic acid 
to creasol, becomes apparent by comparing the formulas, 
and we no longer wonder that cresylic acid at the time 
of its discovery was thought to be identical with creasote. 
It may be well here to say a few words about the place - 
we have to assign to these compounds in organic che¬ 
mistry, and about their constitution, before giving the ■ 
differences by which one class can be distinguished from 
the other. Phenylic hydrate belongs to a series of com¬ 
pounds, the radicals of which differ by the complex CH 2 . 
They are probably very numerous, and of those already 
known, may be mentioned 
Phenyl, C 6 H 3 
Benzyl, C 7 H~ 
Xylol, C 8 H 9 (also called phloryl). 
In combination with hydrogen these radicals form 
Phenylic hydride, C 6 H 6 , or Benzol. 
Cresylic hydride, C 7 H S , or Toluol. 
Phlorylic hydride, C 8 H 10 or Phlorol (also called xylol).. 
CREASOTE AND CARBOLIC ACID. 
In the year 1832 a body was discovered by Reichen¬ 
bach in the distilled oils of beech-wood tar, which, on 
account of the peculiar property it possessed of preserv¬ 
ing meat and other highly organized compounds, was 
called by him creasote. This substance attracted the at¬ 
tention of many chemists, who studied its properties and 
sought to separate it from tar-oils in general, and it was 
with a degree of satisfaction that, two years later, F. F. 
Runge announced his discovery of a creasote in coal-tar 
oil, which he called carbolic acid. Reichenbach, fear¬ 
ing his discovery would be put into the shade by this 
carbolic acid, which, according to Runge, differed slightly 
from creasote, tried to demonstrate the identity of the 
two substances ; and though Laurent, in the year 1841, 
Their alcohols are 
Phenylic hydrate, C 6 H 6 0, or Phenol (carbolic acid). 
Cresylic hydrate, C 7 H s O, or Cresol (cresylic acid). 
Phlorylic hydrate, C s H 10 O, or Phlorol (Wurtz’ xenol). 
In treating these alcohols with oxidizing substances, 
we obtain, at least in the case of phlorol, substances- 
which contain more oxygen and less hydrogen than the 
alcohols, and which we call 
Chinon, C 6 H 4 0 2 
Kreson, C- H 6 0 2 
Phloron, C 8 H 8 0 2 . 
Wo said in the case of phlorol: for though we are able 
to produce the other two compounds, the first by heat¬ 
ing chinic acid, which in combination with lime is a 
constituent of all Peruvian barks, and the second by de- 
