118       PRODUCTION  OF  BENZOIC  ACID  FROM  NAPHTHALIN. 
6.  Red  matter. 
7.  Extractive  ;  soluble  in  water. 
8.  Acetic  and  uric  acids. 
9.  Essential  oil. 
10.  Parenchymatous  matter  ;  insoluble. — Lond.  Pharm.  Journ., 
from  Joum.  de  Pharmacie  et  de  CJiimie. 
ON  THE  ARTIFICIAL  PRODUCTION  OF  BENZOIC  ACID 
FROM  NAPHTHALIN.* 
By  Dk.  Adolf  Ott. 
Benzoic  Acid  is  a  crystallizable,  soft-,  white  body,  inodorous 
when  pure,  but  smelling  like  gum  benzoin  when  gently  warmed ; 
it  usually  has  a  faint  aromatic  odor,  sweetish  taste,  but  produces 
a  burning  sensation  in  the  throat.  Litmus  is  feebly  reddened 
by  it ;  it  fuses  at  250°  Fahr.,  sublimes  at  300°  Fahr.,  and  boils 
at  462°  Fahr.,  yielding  a  vapor  of  the  sp.  gr.  4-27.  It  exists 
in  benzoin,  in  the  tolu  balsam,  in  the  gum  of  Xanthorrcea  hastilis, 
in  castor,  and  has  also  been  met  with  in  the  urine  of  man  and 
herbivorous  animals,  &c.  Benzoic  acid  is  also  found  by  the  oxi- 
dation and  decomposition  of  oil  of  bitter  almonds,  protochloride 
of  benzoil,  hippuric  acid,  &c,  and  furthur  by  the  action  of  a  so- 
lution of  caustic  baryta  on  populin  and  other  organic  compounds. 
It  has  hitherto,  nevertheless,  only  been  prepared  from  the  gum 
benzoin,  either  by  subliming  the  same — a  process  existing  since 
1703  (vide  Turquet  de  Mayerne,  "  Pharmacopoeia  in  Oper- 
medio."  London) — or  by  a  process,  due  to  Wheeler,  which  we 
will  here  not  further  describe,  as  it  can  be  found  in  nearly  any 
larger  hand-book  of  chemistry.  We  only  will  mention  that  it  is 
used  in  medicine  to  some  extent,  viz.,  against  affections  of  the 
throat  ;  largely  in  the  manufacture  of  aniline  blue  ;  and  for  the 
preparation  of  tobacco  sauces. 
This  interesting  substance,  of  which  the  chemical  formula  is 
C14H604,  has  now  lately  been  produced,  at  a  rate  allowing  the 
manufacturer  large  profits,  from  a  substance  which,  in  its  crude 
*  A  paper  read  before  the  Polytechnic  Association  of  the  American 
Institute. 
