404 
Contributions  to  Pharmacy. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\     August,  1894. 
continued  by  use  of  a  fresh  soda  solution,  the  complete  saponifica- 
tion required  from  one  to  two  weeks.  In  this  prolonged  treatment, 
two  things  were  noticeable — the  continued  separation  of  a  crystal- 
line acid  and  the  change  in  the  resin,  each  precipitation  causing  it 
to  be  lighter-colored  and  less  cakey,  until  after  the  completion  of 
the  saponification  it  formed  a  gritty  powder,  not  melting  even  under 
boiling  water,  and  failing,  when  heated  in  alkaline  solution  with  po- 
tassium permanganate,  to  give  the  odor  of  benzaldehyde,  this  last 
reaction  easily  succeeding  with  the  unsaponified  resin.  To  deter- 
mine the  nature  of  the  liberated  aromatic  acid,  the  separated  acid 
and  the  washings  by  recrystallization  were  collected  ;  the  former,  by 
its  melting  point,  13  30  C,  combustion,  and  behavior  towards  potas- 
sium permanganate,  was  proven  to  be  cinnatnic  acid ;  the  washings, 
after  being  made  alkaline,  were  concentrated  and  acidified,  when 
another  portion  of  the  same  acid  was  obtained,  and  from  the  mother 
liquor  of  this  crystallization  by  repeated  concentrations,  was  finally 
obtained  a  crop  of  crystals,  not  giving  the  cinnamic  acid  reaction, 
melting  at  1210  C,  and  by  ultimate  analysis  agreeing  with  the  for- 
mula of  benzoic  acid ;  the  quantity  of  the  latter  acid  was  trifling, 
compared  with  that  of  the  cinnamic  acid.  These  results  are  analogous 
to  those  published  by  F.  Ludy  on  benzoin  (Am.  Journ.  Pharm., 
1893,223  and  459);  the  tests  described  by  him  for  the  basic  or 
alcoholic  constituents  (resinols)  of  benzoin,  benzo-resinol,  and  resino- 
tannol,  were  applied  to  the  resinol  from  Peru-balsam,  which  can  be 
prepared  by  a  quicker  method  than  the  one  described,  namely,  by 
dissolving  the  resin .  in  strong  soda  solution,  and  heating  for  2  to  3 
days  under  pressure,  when  the  saponification  was  found  to  be  com- 
plete;  the  tests  for  benzo-resinDl  are,  firstly,  solubility  in  dilute  pot- 
ash solution  and  precipitation  of  the  potassium  compound  by  the  addi- 
tion of  a  concentrated  solution  of  potash,  amorphous  at  first,  but  by 
boiling  becoming  crystalline  ;  secondly,  the  alcoholic  solution  of  one 
part  of  the  saponified  resin,  mixed  with  ten  parts  of  freshly-prepared 
milk  of  lime,  evaporated  to  dryness  on  a  water-bath,  powdered, 
boiled  with  alcohol,  filtered,  and  the  filtrate  poured  into  water  acidu- 
lated with  hydrochloric  acid,  when  a  flocculent  precipitate  of  benzo- 
resinol  was  obtained.  Neither  of  these  tests  succeeded  with  the  alco- 
holic body  from  Peru-resin;  better  results  were  obtained  in  trying  the 
test  for  resinotannol,  which  consists  in  adding  to  the  alcoholic  solu- 
tion an  alcoholic  solution  of  potash,  when  a  brown  precipitate  is  formed, 
