330 USEFUL PROPERTIES OF BENZOLE, ETC. 
gutta percha. Its volatility gives to its solution of either 
of the two latter substances the useful property of drying 
rapidly and perfectly; so that, when spread on glass or any 
polished surface, a film of the gum is deposited, which may 
readily be peeled off in the form of a tough membrane of 
any required degree of tenuity, and possessing all the pro- 
perties of the original material. The same solutions, var- 
nished on the skin, form admirable artificial cuticles, which 
have been found useful in cases of wounds and burns, and 
might probably be very beneficial in some skin diseases. 
It dissolves gamboge in smaller quantity, and shell-lac 
even more sparingly ; but it will mix in equal bulks with a 
saturated solution of lac in wood-spirit or alcohol. This 
property may be valuable to varnish-makers. 
Copal and anime yield but slightly to the solvent power 
of this fluid ; but its vapor, in the act of condensation, 
rapidly dissolves these resins; so, that, if fragments of them 
be suspended in the head of a vessel in which the hydro- 
carbon is boiling, the vapor, as it condenses on their sur- 
faces, softens and dissolves them, and trickles back into the 
vessel below, in which a colorless varnish will result, more 
or less concentrated according to the duration of the pro- 
cess. 
Benzole dissolves quinine, depositing it on evaporation 
in a crystalline form ; the condensing vapor dissolves the 
alkaloid, especially if not recently precipitated, more readily 
than the boiling liquid. Cinchonine it does not dissolve, 
but forms with it a bulky gelatinous mass. It dissolves 
strychnine and morphine but sparingly. 
It dissolves iodine, phosphorus and sulphur; and when 
boiling takes up the latter in large quantity, of which, how- 
ever, the greater part crystallizes out as the fluid cools. 
It has been found extremely useful in the laboratory as 
a solvent in researches in organic chemistry, where the 
high price and almost too great volatility of ether render a 
substitute for that agent a frequent desideratum. 
