335 
ON THE PRODUCTION OF FURFUROL. 
It might be supposed that broken fragments of glass or 
sand would answer the same purpose as rock crystal ; but 
such I have not found to be the case. — Phann. Journ. 
ART. LXXIII.— ON THE PRODUCTON OF FURFUROL. 
By Geo. Fownes, F.R.S. 
Professor of Practical Chemistry, University College, London. 
In the year 1845, 1 pubhshed an account of the artificial 
formation of a vegeto alkaH, resembhng in many particu- 
lars those occurring in cinchona-bark, produced by the 
action of ammonia on a volatile oil, generated or developed 
by heating a mixture of wheat-bran and sulphuric acid. I 
was indebted to Mr. Morson for the oil itself so described ; 
it had been in his possession several years, having been 
presented to him by Mr. Wm. Coley Jones, who had both 
discovered it and prepared it on a large scale, hoping to 
turn it to some practical use. Mr. Jones gave it the name 
furfurol from its origin, and published at the time a descrip- 
tion of the oil and some of its peculiarities. 
The examination of this substance soon showed its iden- 
tity with an oily matter sometimes produced in preparing 
formic acid by the artificial process which had been noticed 
by Doebereiner, under the name of ariificial oil of aiiiSj 
and more carefully examined by Dr. Stenhouse, who suc- 
ceeded in procuring it in larger quantity by distilling wheat- 
flour with slightly diluted sulphuric acid. The analyses of 
Dr. Stenhouse, which agree exactly with my own, assign 
to furfurol the formula C'^H^O', or the triple of this, C ^H^O*^ 
