ALCOHOL j SPIRIT OF WOOD, AND ETHERS. 43 
compounds, because I have been able to distinguish them from 
another equally numerous series of compounds, which I have 
obtained by the direct combination of ether with substances 
attractive of water, and of which the properties differ essen- 
tially from those of the alcoholic compounds. Thus, while 
by the action of water my alcoholic compounds always yield 
alcohol, my ethereal compounds always afford ether, while 
some alcoholic compounds alter by heat, producing ether, oil, 
&c, the corresponding ethereal compounds volatilise without 
change ; of this number are the compounds formed with per- 
chloride of tin. Other alcoholic compounds are voporizable 
without alteration, and do not change into ethereal compounds 
but under the influence of a temperature of about 140° ; such 
is the combination of alcohol with the fluoride of boron. 
What I have said of alcohol as to the combinations into 
which it enters, is equally applicable to the spirit of wood. 
I have made manifest that the part of a base does not apper- 
tain to alcohol, ether, and spirit of wood, but also to the ethers 
of the hydracids under similar circumstances ; and*have also 
made known the results of some experiments upon this spe- 
cies of compound. 
2. In the second part of my essay, I have examined the ac- 
tion of heat upon the alcoholic and methylic compounds ; 
first, those where alcohol and spirit of wood act as acids ; 
and after where these bodies form the electro-positive elements 
of the compound. 
The combinations of powerful bases with alcohol or spirit 
of wood, do not give rise to ether by the action of heat ; their 
decomposition takes place at a temperature but slightly ele- 
vated, and those portions of alcohol or spirit of wood which 
are retained, are not decomposed but at a temperature of 
about 250°, and yield gaseous hydro-carburets, and under some 
circumstances an empyreumatic oil. 
The combinations of alcohol and certain metallic chlorides 
always yield ether at the temperature of about 140°, when the 
combination is submitted to heat in presence of an excess of 
alcohol; the ether thus disengaged is always in part sulphu- 
