270  NEW  METHOD   FOR  PREPARING  BENZOIC  ACID. 
are  more  strongly  marked  with  black  dots,  and  the  feet  are  of 
the  same  brownish  black  as  the  rest  of  the  body.  I  have  found 
this  in  the  Banda  Oriental,  and  in  Entre-Rios  near  the  Parana. 
Qantharis  vittigera  (Pyrota  vittigera,  Bl.,  D'  Orbigny,  Voy. 
Entom.  200,  t.  15,  f.  7).— Collected  on  the  Parana. 
The  last  of  these  three  species  is  naked  on  the  surface ;  the 
other  two  have  a  very  fine  brown  pubescence,  with  naked  points. 
The  remaining  species  are  clothed  in  the  same  way,  except  one 
very  small  one  from  the  Banda  Oriental,  and  another  very  large 
one  from  Catamarca  and  Mendoza,  and  probably  along  the  whole 
western  side  of  the  Republic  (La  Rioja,  San  Juan)  at  the  foot 
of  the  Cordillera.  This  species,  which  I  call  Vantharis  viridi- 
pennis,  is  one  of  the  largest  of  all,  being  nearly  an  inch  long, 
of  a  black  color,  with  yellow  feet,  and  metallic-green  elytra.  It 
is  probably  also  the  most  efficacious  of  the  Argentine  species, 
being  the  only  one  that  has  a  metallic  lustre,  like  the  European 
species.  The  apothecaries  of  Mendoza  employ  it  with  very  good 
effect. 
4.  Nemognatha,  Ulig. — This  genus  is  easily  distinguished  by 
the  prolongation  of  the  lower  mandible  into  a  longish  thread. 
I  have  one  species,  hitherto  unknown,  of  a  yellow  color,  with 
black  antennae  and  tibiae,  from  the  Parana.  I  shall  call  it  JV. 
nigricornis. — Lond.  Fharm.  Jour.,  April,  1865. 
A  NEW  METHOD  FOR  PREPARING  BENZOIC  ACID. 
By  MM.  P.  and  E.  Depoully. 
This  process  is  founded  on  the  transformation  of  phtalic  into 
benzoic  acid. 
The  division  of  phtalic  acid  into  benzoic  and  carbonic  acids 
was  foreseen  by  Gerhardt ;  when  he  placed  phtalic  acid  and 
naphthaline  in  the  benzoic  series,  he  considered  that  this  acid 
was  to  benzoic  acid  what  oxalic  is  to  formic  acid.  (Gerhardt, 
"  Chimie  Organique,"  iii.  413). 
M.  Berthelot  (Chimie  Organique  Fondde  sur  la  Synthese,  i« 
348),  speaking  of  the  complete  division  of  phtalic  acid  into  ben- 
zine and  carbonic  acid,  expresses  himself  thus  in  a  note: 
"  'Were  the  decomposition  arrested  half  way,  benzoic  acid  would 
doubtless  be  produced." 
