246 ASPARTIC ACID FROM B1MALATE OF AMMONIA. 
The action of ammonia upon malic ether, when a method 
shall have been discovered for preparing this ether, ought 
to produce asparagine. 1 have not been more fortunate 
than my predecessors in my endeavors to obtain malic 
ether; but I have succeeded in preparing aspartic acid from, 
the bimalate of ammonia. 
When this salt is heated to between 320° and 392° in an 
oil-bath, it melts, puffs up, and disengages some slightly am- 
moniacal water. The residue is a transparent, resinoid, 
reddish mass, which dissolves but very sparingly even in 
boiling water. By repeated washing with hot water, an 
amorphous pulverulent matter, of a pale red color and an 
earthy taste, is obtained. It is a new nitrogenous acid, 
differing in all its reactions from aspartic acid. It is a very 
stable substance, and dissolves in hot concentrated acids, 
from which it is precipitated by an addition of water unal- 
tered, even after ebullition, for some minutes. But if heat- 
ed for five or six hours with nitric or hydrochloric acid, it 
undergoes a remarkable metamorphosis. The reaction is 
terminated when water added to the acid solution no longer 
causes a precipitate. The solution, evaporated to dryness 
in the water-bath, left a brown, very acid, crystalline resi- 
due, which is a combination of hydrochloric acid and an 
organic substance. This compound is readily purified by 
means of charcoal, and is obtained in^ beautiful colorless 
crystals. It was dissolved in a pretty large quantity of 
boiling water, and the solution divided into two equal parts 
one of which was accurately saturated wilh ammonia, and 
the other part then added. On cooling, a quantity of mi- 
nute brilliant prisms separated, which are aspartic acid. 
This acid does not exhibit the same crystalline form as the 
aspartic acid derived from asparagin ; but the salts which 
it forms with lime, soda and the oxides of copper and silver 
crystallize with the same form as the corresponding aspar- 
tates ; and I have convinced myself by analysis that they 
contain the same amount of base. I have also submitted 
