NOTE  ON  CARBOLIC  ACID,  ETC. 
259 
to  several  accounts  from  Germany,  this  plan  of  substituting 
sodium  for  phosphorus  has  been  favorably  taken  up  by  some  of 
the  largest  and  leading  manufacturers  of  lucifer  and  fusee 
matches.  There  is  said  to  be  not  the  least  danger  in  the  trans- 
port.— London  Chemical  News^  March  25,  1860.  Abridged  from 
Deutsche  Industrie  Zeitung. 
NOTE  ON  THE  SO-CALLED  CARBOLIC   ACID,  OR  COAL 
TAR  CREASOTE * 
By  Edward  R.  Squibb,  M.  D. 
(From  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  Re- 
vised by  the  author  with  additions  and  corrections,  for  republication  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Pharmacy.) 
The  chief  object  of  this  note  is  to  mention  some  recent  experi- 
ments with  this  important  substance,  and  some  deductions  drawn 
therefrom. 
It  is  pretty  well  known  that  the  creasote  of  the  common  mar- 
ket of  late  years  has  been  made  from  coal  tar,  and  that  it  con- 
sists mainly  of  two  substances,  often  called  carbolic  and 
cresylic  acids,  in  not  very  uniform  proportions.  In  the  process 
of  rectifying  the  creasote  for  the  markets,  the  portions  which 
distilled  over  at  a  low  temperature,  say  below  190°  C,  and 
at  a  very  high  temperature,  say  above  220°  C,  were  rejected. 
An  examination  of  this  creasote  by  the  light  of  advancing 
knowledge,  showed  that  it  was  a  complex  substance,  consist- 
ing mainly  of  two  similar  liquids  of  different  ultimate  composi- 
tion and  properties,  which  could  be  separated  by  the  difference 
in  their  boiling  points.  These  liquids,  when  examined  for  classi- 
fication, were  at  first  supposed  to  be  acids,  and  that  having  the 
lower  boiling  point  was  called  carbolic  acid,  from  carbon  and  oil 
or  the  coal  oil  from  which  it  was  obtained.  It  was  subsequently 
found  to  belong  to  the  phenyl  group,  and  was  then  called 
phenylic  acid ;  and  its  congener,  the  other  principal  liquid  of 
*This  note  was  intended  as  a  supplement  to  an  expected  paper  from 
Prof.  Chandler,  of  New  York,  upon  the  chemical  character  and  relations 
of  this  substance ;  and  therefore  the  pure  or  accurate  chemistry  of  the 
subject  has  not  been  developed  here,  but  chemical  properties  and  char, 
acteristics  have  only  been  added  as  required,  since  finding  that  Prof. 
Chandler  has  not  had  time  to  prepare  his  paper. 
