508 
Note  on  GuaiacoU 
(  Am.  Jour,  Phakm^ 
\     Nov.  1, 1872. 
I  regret  that  the  results  of  my  experiments  are  of  a  negative  rather 
than  of  a  positive  nature,  but  I  trust,  unsatisfactory  as  they  confess- 
edly are,  they  may  prove  of  service  to  any  one  who  may  wish  to  fol- 
low up  the  examination  of  the  true  nature  of  creasote. 
There  is,  I  think,  no  doubt  that  the  English  creasote  is  a  genuine 
product  of  wood  tar.  It  is,  however,  not  a  homogeneous  body,  but 
probably  consists  of  several  isomeric  substances ;  while  the  fact  of 
the  German  (beech-wood)  creasote  dissolving  in  glycerin  led  me  to 
suspect  the  presence  of  carbolic  acicl,  but  all  my  attempts  to  demon- 
strate its  presence  have  quite  failed,  and  I  can  only  conclude  that 
beech-wood  tar  yields  a  creasote  to  a  certain  extent  different  to  that 
yielded  by  either  guaiacum  or  pine-wood  tar.  In  some  of  its  chem- 
ical properties  German  creasote  much  nearer  approaches  guaiacol  than 
the  English;  its  smell  is  almost  identical,  and  its  boiling  point  very 
much  nearer  and  more  constant. 
When  English  and  German  creasote  are  dissolved  in  strong  caustic 
soda,  and  then  diluted,  the  English  becomes  milky,  and  yields,  when 
distilled,  an  appreciable  quantity  of  light  oil ;  the  German,  on  the  con- 
trary, remains  bright  and  yields  no  oil,  which  would  tend  to  prove  the 
German  to  be  in  some  respects  a  purer  article  than  the  English. 
The  fact  of  the  German  creasote  dissolving  in  glycerin  ought  to  be 
explained,  either  by  proving  that  beech-wood  creasote  really  possesses 
this  property,  or  has  obtained  it  from  some  peculiarity  in  the  mode  of 
manufacture. 
It  would  be  very  interesting  to  examine  some  of  Reichenbach's 
original  creasote,  if  an  authentic  sample  could  now  be  obtained ;  per- 
haps some  member  of  the  Conference  may  be  able  to  assist  in  this, 
matter. 
To  Mr.  Myles  Smith,  our  chemical  assistant,  I  must  express  my 
best  thanks  for  many  of  the  suggestions,  and  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
experiments  here  detailed  have  been  performed  by  him  with  great 
care  and  accuracy. 
[In  the  discussion  following  the  reading  of  this  paper,  Mr.  Morson 
stated  that  his  experiments  had  been  made  with  Price's,  not  with  di- 
luted glycerin,  as  we  inferred  from  Professor  Fluckiger's  and  our 
own  experiments.* — Editor  Amer.  Jour.  Pharm.] 
*  See  Amer.  Jonrn.  Pharm.,  1872,  p.  334. 
