230 
SELECTED ARTICLES. 
been otherwise altered during the distillation; and as a con- 
firmation of this opinion I may mention that the oil of cassia, 
which is found in the market, is chiefly cinnamic acid, and 
that a cinnamon water prepared from it by a process directed 
in some of the Pharmacopoeias, yields but a very minute pro- 
portion of the substance which is the subject of the present 
paper. 
With a view to the analysis of this compound, the first 
point to determine was the proportion of iodide of potassium 
which it included. To accomplish this, a known weight of 
it was heated in a small porcelain capsule, by which iodine 
and oil of cinnamon were expelled in the vaporous state, and 
there remained a mixture of iodide of potassium with a little 
carbon, resulting from the decomposition of a portion of the 
oil. The iodide of potassium was separated from the carbon 
by solution in w T ater, and the use of a single filter which had 
been previously deprived of all soluble matter by the action, 
first, of a dilute acid, and subsequently of distilled water. The 
filter being well washed, the solution was evaporated to dry- 
ness in a carefully counterpoised capsule, and then accurately 
weighed. The following are the results of three experiments 
thus conducted: 
IK IK 
(per cent. ) 
3.37 grains gave . 0.43 12.75 
8.00 . . . 1.03 12.87 
9.40 . . . 1.13 12.02 
The mean, therefore, of the numbers in the third column, 
or 12.55,* is the quantity of iodide of potassium as obtained 
by me in 100 grains of the compound. 
The next step was to investigate the iodine associated, not 
with the potassium, but with the oil, and, to effect this, the 
following was the course first pursued: 
A known weight of the compound was decomposed by a 
slight excess of an alcoholic solution of potash, and the whole 
* This contains 9.58 grains of iodine. 
