322 
ACTION  OF  TANNIN  ON  ETHER  AND  WATER. 
tubulated  retort,  and  then  places  it  in  a  vessel  of  cold  water. 
He  now  adds  very  slowly  fragments  of  phosphorus  previously 
washed  with  alcohol.  A  lively  effervescence  accompanied  with 
some  elevation  of  temperature  at  first  takes  place,  so  that  care 
must  be  taken  not  to  add  too  much  phosphorus  at  a  time  :  but 
the  reaction  soon  moderates,  and  enough  phosphorus  to  make 
up  50  grammes  can  be  added  without  inconvenience.  The  re- 
tort can  now  be  adapted  to  the  refrigerator,  and  placed  over  the 
fire.  When  the  distilled  product  no  longer  becomes  turbid  in 
contact  with  water,  it  is  shaken  first  with  an  alkaline  solution 
and  then  with  water ;  it  is  afterwards  dehydrated  by  means  of 
chloride  of  calcium  and  rectified. 
The  500  grammes  of  iodine  give  from  562  to  574  grammes  of 
hydriodic  ether,  that  is  from  91  to  93  per  cent.  Theory  re- 
quires 614.  The  brown  residuum  in  the  retort  is  free  from 
iodine. — Chem.  News,  London,  May  5,  1860. 
ACTION  OF  TANNIN  ON  ETHER  AND  WATER. 
M.  Luboldt  (Journal  fur  Praktische  Chemie)  says  that  tan- 
nin loses  more  or  less  water  when  heated  on  a  bath  of  chloride 
of  zinc  according  to  the  manner  in  which  it  has  been  prepared. 
When  obtained  by  the  method  of  Pelouze,  it  loses  only  10  per 
cent,  of  water,  but  when  evaporated  from  an  aqueous  solution 
it  loses  12-85  per  cent.  Thus  dried  tannin  gives  up  to  absolute 
ether  from  2  to  3  per  cent,  of  fixed  principles  composed  of  a 
mixture  of  tannin,  gallic  acid,  ellagic  acids, and  fatty  and  resinous 
substances.  These  relations  are  a  little  changed  when  water  inter- 
venes. At  first  anhydrous  tannin  has  a  great  affinity  for  water, 
which  it  seizes  upon  and  then  dissolves  in  its  own  weight  of  ether, 
forming  a  syrupy  liquid,  which  in  the  process  of  Pelouze  consti- 
tutes the  inferior  layer.  On  this  pure  ether  has  no  action,  but 
if  enough  water  be  added,  the  tannin  forms  a  viscous  mass  with 
the  two  liquids.  The  results  varying  according  to  the  propor- 
tion of  water  employed,  led  tke  author  to  believe  that  they 
might  be  occasioned  by  the  property  which  ether  and  water  have 
of  dissolving  one  in  the  other.  He  found  in  fact  that  the  sy- 
rupy liquid  only  yielded  _L  its  weight  to  water  saturated  with 
ether.    The  three  layers  obtained  by  treating  tannin  with  ether 
