ON  NITROBENZOLE. 
201 
Searching  for  a  good  method  to  find  out  such  a  falsification, 
I  looked  over  my  different  literary  works  for  its  chemical  proper- 
ties, and  found  there  that  the  descriptions  of  nitrohenzole  as 
they  are  contained  in  the  different  works  do  not  accord  with  each 
other.  Wohler,  in  his  "Elements  of  Organic  Chemistry,  1848," 
describes  it  as  a  substance  smelling  like  the  oil  of  cinnamon, 
while  others  say  it  had  the  smell  of  the  true  bitter  almond  oil. 
To  ascertain  which  of  these  statements  was  correct,  I  concluded 
to  prepare  some  nitrobenzole  myself. 
I  thought  first  to  make  it  out  of  commercial  benzole,  and  pro- 
cured some  samples  from  different  manufacturers,  but  found  to 
my  astonishment  that  none  of  these  substances,  said  to  be  ben- 
zole, contained  any  accountable  amount  of  the  true  benzole. 
One  of  these  samples,  from  the'coal  oil  factory  of  Dr.  Blaney  of 
this  city,*  was  subjected  to  a  closer  examination  by  heating  it  in 
a  glass  retort,  in  which  I  inserted  a  thermometer  through  the 
tubulus. 
At  235°  F.  the  liquid  began  to  distil  slowly,  the  quicksilver 
still  rising,  although  the  heat  employed  was  always  the  same. 
The  first  point  at  which  it  proved  to  be  stationary,  was  for  a 
short  time  266°  F.,  and  as  soon  as  the  quicksilver  began  to  rise 
again  a  new  receiver  was  adapted  to  the  retort.  The  same  was 
done  another  time  at  293°  and  a  third  time  at  300°. 
The  three  obtained  products  were  perfectly  colorless,  and  re- 
mained so,  with  the  exception  of  the  last  one,  which  became  soon 
darker,  assuming  a  deep  yellow  color  by  the  action  of  the  light. 
In  the  retort  remained  still  a  portion  of  the  original  substance, 
but  my  object  being  to  ascertain  whether  this  article  contained 
benzole  or  not,  I  thought  it  not  necessary  to  go  farther,  because 
the  benzole  begins  to  boil  already  at  186°  F. 
Not  succeeding  to  find  any  commercial  benzole,  out  of  which 
I  was  able  to  prepare  the  pure  benzole,  I  concluded  to  make 
some  from  the  benzoic  acid.  Two  ounces  of  this  acid  were  there- 
fore distilled  with  about  six  ounces  of  hydrated  lime,  and  about 
5 h  drachms  of  pure  benzole  were  obtained.  This  was  carefully 
introduced  in  small  quantities  into  an  equal  quantity  of  a  mix- 
ture of  concentrated  sulphuric  and  nitric  acids,  kept  cool  with 
ice.    After  the  action  was  over,  the  whole  was  for  a  few  days 
*Dr.  Blaney  used  to  make  it  out  of  gas-tar. 
