PRODUCTION  AND  SEPARATION  OF  METHYL  AMINE.  345 
preparation,  it  can  be  obtained  more  free  from  color  than  crude 
beeswax,  and  moreover,  it  is  said  to  be  rendered  perfectly  white 
by  the  ordinary  modes  of  wax  bleaching.  It  might  probably 
be  used  also  with  advantage  to  harden  paraffine  candles. 
Taking  into  consideration  the  abundance  of  the  plant  itself,  its 
hardy  habits  of  life — in  fact;  it  thrives  best  upon  soils  which  from 
their  poverty  and  proximity  to  the  sea  are  unfitted  for  all  other 
purposes  of  cultivation — the  slight  degree  of  attention  required 
to  insure  abundant  crops,  and  finally  the  ease  of  extraction  of 
the  wax  itself,  there  appears  to  be  no  reason  why  the  preparation 
of  myrtle  wax  should  not  constitute  an  important  branch  of 
manufacturing  industry.* 
The  foregoing  investigation  was  undertake  at  the  suggestion 
of  Prof.  Johnson,  for  whose  guidance  and  assistance  I  here  take 
pleasure  in  expressing  my  grateful  acknowledgments. — Am- 
Jour.  Sci.  and  Arts,  May,  1862. 
ON  THE  PRODUCTION  AND  SEPARATION  OF  METHYLAMINE. 
Br  M.  Carey  Lea. 
In  a  previous  paper  I  have  pointed  out  that  ammonias  in 
which  hydrogen  is  replaced  by  methyl  are  obtained  by  the 
action  of  nitrate  of  methyl  upon  ammonia  at  ordinary  temper- 
atures. Nitrate  of  methyl, f  obtained  by  the  distillation  of  me- 
thyl ic  alcohol  with  nitric  acid  and  urea,  is  placed  in  well  stop- 
pered bottles  filled  only  about  one  quarter,  together  with  a  little 
more  than  its  own  bulk  of  thoroughly  saturated  aqueous  am- 
monia, and  is  left  till  the  nitrate  of  methyl  disappears,  or  until 
only  a  few  brown  oily  drops  remain,  a  reaction  which  requires 
from  three  to  six  days,  according  to  the  temperature.  The 
*  In  course  of  the  preceding  investigation  a  property  of  the  palmitate  of 
silver  was  noticed  which  I  believe  has  not  yet  been  placed  on  record.  I 
allude  to  its  becoming  powerfully  electric  by  friction.  A  small  quantity 
of  this  salt,  purified  from  extraneous  fatty  matters  by  digestion  of  ether, 
was  gently  rubbed  in  an  agate  mortar,  when  a  sufficient  amount  of  electri- 
city was  generated  to  cause  the  powder  to  fly  out  in  every  direction  and 
cluster  around  the  pestle  and  the  band  holding  it. — g.  e.  m. 
f  See  page  223,  Amer.  Jour.  Pharm.,  May,  1862. 
