THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
FEBRUARY,  1897. 
ON  THE  VOLUMETRIC  ESTIMATION  OF  ACETONE. 
By  Lyman  F.  Kebeer. 
Since  the  modern  developments  in  the  manufacture  of  acetone,  the 
application  of  this  product  has  been  developed  in  many  directions. 
As  a  solvent  its  uses  appear  to  be  almost  unlimited,  in  both  analy- 
tical and  technical  operations.  Ethyl  alcohol,  wood  alcohol,  ether 
and  acetic  ether  have  been  displaced  by  it  in  many  instances,  not 
only  as  being  a  more  economical  solvent,  but  a  better  general  solv- 
ent. Prof.  S.  P.  Sadtler1  has  proposed  its  use  for  the  technical  anal- 
ysis of  asphalt ;  C.  Kippenberger2  has  employed  it  as  a  solvent  in 
volumetric  determinations  of  alkaloids  by  means  of  Wagner's  rea- 
gent ;  and  H.  Trimble  and  J.  C.  Peacock3  have  used  it  in  the  pre- 
paration of  tannic  acid.  These  are  only  instances  of  the  possibilities 
of  acetone. 
Now,  it  can  reasonably  be  expected  that  the  manufacture  of  this 
product  will  be  materially  cheapened  in  due  time,  and,  with  this 
cheapening,  samples  of  various  degrees  of  purity- will  be  met  with  ; 
then  the  analyst  will  be  called  on  to  devise  ways  and  means  for 
deciding  in  favor  of  the  deserving  products. 
At  present,  we  are  not  in  position  to  determine  the  acetone,  or 
dimethyl  ketone,  in  various  mixtures  with  accuracy.  The  commer- 
cial acetone  generally  contains  bodies,  besides  acetone,  that  respond 
to  the  iodoform  reaction,  on  which  all  of  our  analytical  methods  are 
1  l895>/-  Frank,  hist.,  140,  383. 
2  1896,  Ztschr.  anal.  Chem.,  35,  10,  and  422. 
3  1893,  Am.  J.  Pharm.,  65,  435  ;  Proc.  Am.  Pharm.  Assoc.,  41,  no. 
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