ON  KEROSOLENE. 
399 
probable  that  traces  of  these  may  be  present  in  the  new  liquid, 
though  they  vary  from  it  so  much  both  in  sp.  gr.  and  boiling 
point.  Experiments  to  detect  Aniline  in  the  specimens 
under  examination  failed  to  indicate  it  as  might  be  anticipated, 
its  sp.  gr.  being  stated  at  1-020,  and  the  process  of  rectification 
with  sulphuric  acid  being  adapted  to  separate  any  alkaloids  if 
originally  present. 
Compared  with  the  commercial  article  of  benzine,  now  so  ex- 
tensively sold,  kerosolene  presents  several  marked  points  of 
difference  ;  three  specimens  of  benzine  I  have  examined  have 
respectively,  at  60°  F.,  the  sp.  gr.  '  -7521,  .7661,  and  -8708; 
these  differ  in  sensible  properties  from  each  other  almost  as  much 
as  they  do  from  kerosolene.  The  most  agreeable  in  odor  I 
imported  from  England  at  a  much  higher  price  than  that  paid 
for  the  American  varieties,  which  I  have  generally  found  dis- 
agreeably "balsamic,"  sometimes  resembling  impure  illuminating 
gas,  and  leading  to  the  belief  that  the  gas  was  escaping  into 
the  room;  one  specimen  became  almost  intolerable  by  age, 
while  the  color  became  gradually  yellow.  Kersolene,  as  before 
stated,  is  almost  free  from  odor,  it  is  so  very  mobile,  light  and 
colorless  that  it  could  not  be  mistaken  for  benzine,  and  still  less 
for  kerosene,  its  properties  having  relations  to  the  latter  sub- 
stance not  unlike  those  of  ether  to  oil  of  turpentine. 
Under  the  name  of  Eupion,  chemists  formerly  described  a 
product  of  the  destructive  distillation  of  wood,  which  was 
believed  to  be  CgHg,  but  it  has  since  been  shown  by  Voelckel 
that  the  portions  rising  below  212*^  F.  consisted  chiefly  of  ace- 
tate of  methyl  with  acetone,  a  little  benzine,  xylite  and  mesite. 
The  sp.  gr.  of  eupion  was  stated  at  -655,  its  boiling  point  at 
118^^  F.,  rising  as  high  as  336°  in  some  samples.  Though  stated 
to  be  the  lightest  of  known  substances,  it  will  be  seen  that  this 
product  was  rather  more  dense  than  our  new  carbohydrogen 
product.  Accounts  differed  in  regard  to  its  miscibility  with 
water  and  alcohol,  it  was,  however,  described  as  freely  misci- 
ble  with  ether  and  oils,  and  as  being  of  a  faint  and  agreeable 
odor  and  without  taste,  which  properties  correspond  with  those 
of  the  liquor  under  consideration.  That  kerosolene  contains  no 
more  than  a  slight  trace  of  any  oxygenated  body  was  shovni  by 
