42 
ALCOHOL, SPIRIT OP WOOD, AND ETHERS. 
ART. VII. — EXPERIMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE STUDY 
OF ALCOHOL, SPIRIT OF WOOD, AND ETHERS. By M. 
KUHLMAN. 
In this account, my aim has not been to examine the specu- 
lations relative to the chemical constitution of the ethers, but 
to amplify those facts which would appear to lead us to place 
so important a portion of our theories upon some immoveable 
basis. 
1 have, therefore, given to all my experiments a special ten- 
dency towards a fixed system, and, in my equations, I have 
used the crude formulae of C 4 H 12 2 and C 2 H 8 2 , to desig- 
nate alcohol and spirit of wood. 
1. 1 have divided my essay into five parts. In the first, I 
take a general view of the compounds which alcohol and ether 
form with bodies attractive of water. Having indicated the 
circumstances under which alcohol and ether play the parts of 
water of crystallization, I am thence led to attribute to these 
bodies the characters of acids or of bases, whenever they enter 
into combinations possessing the character of saline matter. It 
is not without some degree of hesitation that I admit the ex- 
istence of alcoholic compounds, in which alcohol plays the part 
of a base. Prepossessed with ideas concerning the composi- 
tion of alcohol, which have a tendency to consider it as a hy- 
drate of ether, I have been led to view the combinations of al- 
cohol as combinations of ether and water. There is nothing 
to oppose this opinion, but there is also nothing to favor it 
strongly ; and certainly, on examining the question without 
prepossession, we may admit, without difficulty, the existence 
of alcoholic compounds, however little stability they may pos- 
sess under some circumstances. These questions, however, 
I leave t'o the authors of the different theories of etherifica- 
tion. 
I have thought it necessary to admit the existence of alcoholic 
