Methylene, 
65 
ART. XIX. — EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL DE CHIMIE 
MEDICALE. 
Translated for the American Journal of Pharmacy, by Augustine Dumahel. 
The subjoined memoir of Dumas and Peligot is one pos- 
sessed of the highest interest, from the advantage conferred 
upon chemistry, by the important discoveries made by them 
of three new gases. These resulted from the labours of the 
indefatigable authors upon a substance known by the names 
of Pyi oligneous spirit, Pyroxalic spirit, Pyroligneous ether, 
Pyroxalic ether and spirit of ivood. They have discovered 
in this substance the characters of a true alcohol isomorphous 
with common alcohol. 
Pyroligneous spirit, as well as the many other products 
formed in the distillation of wood, have occupied the atten- 
tion of chemists for a number of years past; but it is only of 
late that their experiments have been rewarded by the most 
signal discoveries. Berzelius, speaking of pyroligneous spirit, 
says, " Ph. Taylor was the first to remark its existence, and 
who noticed it to consist of a particular liquor analogous to 
alcohol, but not identical with it ; Colin confounded it with 
pyroacetic spirit; and Macaire and F. Marcet, finally de- 
scribed the properties and composition of this body." 
It would appear from the incongruity in descriptions and 
want of similitude in their experimental results, that there 
was great confusion among writers upon this subject. Ber- 
zelius making mention of this says, " The contradictions 
which these present, given upon experiments so simple, ap- 
pear to indicate the existence of several kinds of pyroligne- 
ous spirits, which have some analogy under certain relations, 
but different the one from the other, in some of their proper- 
ties." After stating the manner in which it is obtained, and 
giving some of its physical characters, together with the ac- 
tion of the acids upon it, Berzelius concludes thus : 
" In the actual state of our knowledge, it is not easy to 
say what is the true nature of pyroligneous spirit. The 
hypothesis of its being an impure alcohol, is not exact. 
Vol. I. — No. I. 9 
