MISCELLANY. 
355 
to direct the attention of the Section to one or two substances produced 
during the action of nitric acid on alcohol, and which he believed to have 
been hitherto overlooked. Dr. Golding Bird's experiments were per- 
formed on the residue of the distillation performed in the pharmaceutical 
laboratory of Guy's Hospital. It has been stated by most chemists, that 
this residue left in the retort contained oxalic acid, and that this sub- 
stance is a constant product of the process : this, however, appears from 
Dr. Bird's experiments to be erroneous; for on examining the fluid left in 
the retort, in which two gallons of alcohol and twenty-four ounces of 
nitric acid had been distilled until three pints were left, not a trace of 
oxalic acid was detected ; and after a careful investigation, an organic 
acid was discovered, in considerable quantity, resulting from the decom- 
posing action of nitric acid on the spirit employed. This, from the 
experiments detailed in the paper, appears to be identical with an acid 
long confounded with the malic, and termed by the French chemists 
Oxalhydric acid, (Hydroxalsaure, and Zuckersaure of German writers,) 
whose composition is represented by the formula, 3H, 4C, 60. This 
acid is invariably produced during the preparation of nitrous ether by the 
assistance of heat, — no oxalic acid being found as long as ether alone, or 
mixed with alcohol, distils over; but as soon as this product is mixed 
with aldehyd, decomposition of the oxalhydric acid occurs, and oxalic 
acid is then produced. Dr. Bird also stated, that, providing the process 
is stopped at the point directed in the London Pharmacopoeia, the dis- 
tilled fluid is not aldehydiferous, which it is important to attend to, as 
the presence of a substance so pungent as aldehyd could not but be 
injurious in a fluid used so extensively in medicine for very opposite 
properties, as the spirits of nitrous ether. The production of aldehyd 
during the action of nitric acid on alcohol, has been noticed by Liebig in 
his excellent " Hanworterbuch von reinem und angewandtem Chemie," 
now publishing. The only circumstance which Dr. Bird deemed novel, was 
the fact of the appearance of oxalic acid in the residual fluid, and of aldehyd 
in the distilled matter, being nearly simultaneous. As a te?t for the pre- 
sence of aldehyd in spiritus etheris nitrici of commerce, the author proposed 
the addition of a weak solution of potass, which would produce a yellow 
tint if this substance were present. From the formation of that substance, 
termed aldehydharz by Liebig, when hyponitrous ether is prepared by Dr. 
Black's process in the cold, acetic acid appears in abundance after the 
process has been carried on for a few days, which is not the case when 
heat is employed. All these different products — aldehyd, oxalhydric, 
acetic, and oxalic acids — may be considered as so many results of the 
oxygenating action of nitric acid on alcohol in different degrees, which 
Dr. Bird demonstrated by the aid of the following table: — 
