254 
The ethereal liquid left after extracting the phytorhodine ethers with 
a 12% hydrochloric acid possesses a brown colour and its absorption 
spectrum is chiefly characterized by a dark band in the red cor¬ 
responding in position to the first band of all the foregoing solu¬ 
tions. A direct measurement of it gave X 682 — X 650. Besides 
this band the solution shows still 3 bands which are however 
extremely faint. The presence of this band in the residual ethereal 
solution and the fact that the various examined colour solutions 
show the baud in the red with various intensities (strongest the less 
basic substances) made it probable that the first band in the red 
does not in reality belong to the spectrum of the phytorhodines but 
is due to an impurity. This view has been supported by the fact 
that although the ethereal solution, obtained by working up of the 
fraction in 12% acid, shows the first baud in the red very strongly^ 
crystals deposited from this solution after being redissolved in pure 
ether did not show traces of this band. The crystals mentioned 
dissolve but difficultly in ether, but by prolonged boiling them with 
this solvent on a water bath sufficiently concentrated solutions may 
be obtained which permit of exact measurements of the absorption 
bands being taken. The absorption bands of these substances are 
identical in position with the bands shown by a crystallized body 
obtained under exactly the same conditions from the potassium salt 
of alkachlorophyll. The measurements of these bands will be given 
later on. 
The alcoholic acid solutions of the above colouring matter show 
quite different absorption spectra than the neutral ones. Their colour 
is reddish violet and the number of absorption bands amounts in 
the less refrangible part of the spectrum to three. One of them is 
situated in the red, the second in the orange and the third, very 
broad one, between the sodium line and the thalium line. The two 
last bands appear in all examined solutions and retain their relative 
intensities, whereas the first one varies in its intensity according 
to the more or less strongly pronounced basic character of the 
examined substance. The colouring matter obtained by working up 
the 2 1 / 2 °/o acid fraction does not show in acid alcoholic solution the 
first band at all, the colouring matter obtained from the fraction 
in 7*5% acid shows this band distinctly but it is less pronounced 
than band II. The substance isolated from the fraction in 10°/ 0 
acid shows the band in the red still more distinctly, it is even 
