AmMarch;lP896a^m•}      Acetone  and  Acetone-Chloroform.  145 
for  many  years  in  making  chloroform  from  alcohol,  and  this  is  also 
objected  to. 
Under  these  circumstances,  it  seems  necessary  to  find  out  what 
has  been  done  in  the  past  upon  this  important  subject,  and  what 
may  be  the  relations  of  past  work  to  the  present  conditions,  and  in 
this  it  is  hoped  the  Society  may  be  interested. 
ACETONE. 
It  is  impossible  to  determine  when  or  where  acetone  was  first 
made  and  used.3  According  to  the  authority  last  given,  after  the 
time  of  Eoerhaave,  in  1732,  "the  body  was  but  little  investigated 
until  1805,  when  TrommsdorfT  stated  that,  on  distilling  acetate  of 
potash  or  soda,  a  liquid  was  obtained  which  stands  between  alcohol 
and  ether."  In  1807  the  Brothers  Derosne,  in  Paris,4  studied  its  prop- 
erties; and,  in  1809,  Chenevix"'  demonstrated  that  this  substance 
was  obtained  by  the  dry  distillation  of  any  one  of  the  acetates. 
The  correct  composition  of  acetone  was  first  given  by  Liebig6 
and  Dumas.7 
Further  investigations  by  Kane,  1838,  and  by  Chancel,  William- 
son, Chiozza,  Freund,  Wanklyn,  and  others,  still  more  definitely 
established  the  sources,  character  and  properties  of  acetone,  and 
gave  it  a  definite  chemical  and  economic  position,  so  that  its  pro- 
duction or  manufacture  by  the  dry  distillation  of  acetates  was  as 
well  known  as  the  production  of  alcohol  by  distillation  from  fer- 
mented sugars,  as  early  as  1848,  when  Bbttger  refers  to  it  as  a 
market  article  in  common  use.  Wackenroder,s  in  1848,  states  that 
since  acetone  is  quoted  on  the  price  lists  at  10  sgr.  (Silbergroschen) 
per  ounce,  the  preparation  of  chloroform  from  it  is  well  worth  re- 
commending. 
In  "  Handworterbuch  der  reinen  und  angewandten  Chemie 
herausgegeben  von  Dr.  J.  Liebig,  Dr.  J.  C.  Poggendorff  und  Dr.  Fr. 
'■'  See  Wurtz'  Dictionnaire  de  Chimie,  1873,  tome  I,  p.  31.  Gmelin,  Hand- 
book of  Chemistry,  1855,  Vol.  IX,  p.  1.  Roscoe  and  Schorlemmer,  A  Treatise 
on  Chemistry,  r882,  Vol.  Ill,  Part  I,  p.  568. 
4  Ann.  de  Chimie,  t.  IyXIII,  p.  267. 
5  Ann.  der  Physik,  Vol.  XXXII,  p.  191. 
r'  Ann.  Pharm.,  Vol.  I,  p.  223. 
7  Ann.  de  Chim.  et  de  Phys.,  t.  XLIX,  p.  208. 
8  Archiv.  der  Pharmacie,  Vol.  1,111,  p.  273. 
