needles, melting at 172°, soluble in benzene, sparingly soluble in alcohol.

Derivatives of Tribromophenol. A. Purgotti. (Gazzetta chim. Ital., xvi. 526–531.) The calcium-derivative of tribromophenol crystallizes in white, silky needles; the ammonium-derivative forms minute crystals, more soluble in cold water than in hot; the silver-derivative is a red, insoluble powder darkening rapidly on exposure; the lead and zinc-derivatives are white precipitates, and the copper-derivative a violet powder, insoluble in water but soluble in ammonia. The ethyl-derivative crystallizes in brilliant prisms melting at 69°. As an antiseptic tribromophenol seems to be superior to phenol and thymol.

Derivatives of Umbelliferone. W. Will and P. Beck. (Ber. der deutsch. chem. Ges., xix. 1777-1786.) In this paper the authors describe bromo-derivatives of umbelliferone ethyl and methyl ethers, and arrive at the conclusion that these ethers are true coumarins, and, like the latter, yield two isomeric alkyloxyacids.

Formation of Quinol from Quinone. G. Ciamician. (Gazz. chim. Ital., xvi. 111, 112.) When an alcoholic solution of quinone is exposed to bright sunlight for a few days it yields quinol and ethaldehyde, in accordance with the following equation:

R. Nietzki. (Ber. der
The author points out

Preparation of Quinone and Quinol. deutsch. chem. Ges., xix. 1467-1469.) several objectionable points in Seyda's modifications of his own processes for the preparation of these substances. He now recommends the following procedure:-A concentrated solution of sodium bichromate (one part of salt in two to three parts of water) is slowly added to a mixture of one part of aniline, twentyfive parts of water, and eight parts of sulphuric acid, the liquid being well cooled; the addition of the chromate solution is continued until any quinhydrone formed has been oxidized to quinone. Instead of extracting the quinone with ether and then reducing it to quinol, it is best to reduce at once with sulphurous anhydride, filter off the insoluble impurities, and extract the quinol with ether. Operating in this way, a yield of 85 per cent. of crude quinol (on the aniline employed) has been obtained.

Quinol and Formic Acid. F. Mylius. (Ber. der deutsch. chem. Ges., xix. 999-1009; Journ. Chem. Soc., 1886, 706). Quinolformic acid, C25 H26 010, is formed when quinol (4 mols.) is dissolved in

hot formic acid, and separates on cooling in colourless, pointed crystals; it melts at about 60° with evolution of formic acid. When dissolved in water, it is decomposed into its constituents.

When quinol is heated with twice its weight of crystallizable formic acid for three or four hours at 250°, a product is obtained consisting of glassy needles; a large quantity of carbonic oxide is formed. The new compound cannot be purified by crystallization, as all solvents, water, alcohol, etc., decompose it into quinol and carbonic oxide, and a small quantity of formic acid. It melts at 170° with evolution of carbonic oxide, and leaves a residue of quinol. It is probably formed by the elimination of water (1 mol.) from quinolformic acid (2 mols.), and would thus be quinolformic anhydride (C He O2), C2 H2 Og. Concordant analy tical results could not be obtained, but the results of quantitative experiments, in which the carbonic oxide and the formic acid were estimated, support this view.

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Quinolhydrocyanic acid (C, H, O2)2, HCN, is obtained by heating quinol with anhydrous hydrocyanic acid at 100°; it forms colourless, lustrous needles, and decomposes into its constituents when heated, or by contact with water.

Saccharin. (Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind., July, 1886, 422. From Pharm. Journ.) The conclusions arrived at by Stutzer concerning the innocuousness of saccharin when taken into the human body have recently been confirmed by Professor E. Salkowski (Virchow's Archiv, cv. 46), and Professor Dreschfeld has ascertained that when given in diabetes it does not affect either the quantity of urine or of sugar passed. It has scarcely any retarding effect on the digestion of either proteids or carbohydrates, and in two cases of acid dyspepsia, it was found to relieve some of the troublesome symptoms. It has also been found that added in small quantities it increases the diastatic action of malt in presence of sugar.

Antifermentative Properties of Saccharin. MM. Aducco and Mosso. (Chem. Zeitung, Oct. 10, 1886. From Pharm. Journ.) It was found that in the proportion of 0·16 per cent. saccharin distinctly and persistently diminished the activity of beer yeast at a temperature both of 16° and 30° C. In a mixture of equal parts of a 0-32 per cent. saccharin solution and urine, kept at a temperature of 16° to 17° C., ammoniacal fermentation had not commenced at the end of seven days, when a mixture containing the same proportion of salicylic acid had broken down. A saccharin solution retarded the lactic fermentation in milk, and the action of a preparation of pancreas was also considerably

slackened by it. Added to a pepsin liquor in the proportion of 0.16 to 0.032 per cent., saccharin retarded the peptonizing of coagulated albumen, though without stopping it; but upon reduction of the saccharin to 0.0064 per cent., the gastric juice was then scarcely affected. Comparative experiments showed benzoic acid to be equally powerful in this respect, and salicylic acid a little more so. In the proportion of 0.16 to 0.32 per cent. in acid and neutral solutions, saccharin proved capable of affecting the amylotic action of saliva, the effect being least in the neutral solution. Salicylic acid proved rather more powerful in similar solutions, and boric acid had about the same effect as saccharin.

So-called Soluble Starch. J. Kraus. (Ann. Agronom., xii. 540, 541. From Journ. Chem. Soc.) Janis and Schenk have found in the epidermis of Ornithogalum and of Gagea a substance dissolved in the cell sap which strikes a blue colour with iodine. Nägeli has shown that it is not starch, and believes it to be an albuminoid. The author, having met with this same substance in the epidermis of some Arums, has come to the conclusion that it is allied to the tannins. Chloriodide of zinc colours it rose, ferric chloride and ferrous sulphate strike a brownish green; on the other hand, potassium dichromate and Gardiner's reagent give no reactions. The substance behaves like a tannin in being developed under the influence of light, and in persisting without alteration in dead or dying leaves. That iodine should strike a blue colour with a tannin is not surprising, since Giessmayer has shown that a solution of tannin gives with a weak solution of iodine, in feebly alkaline water, a bright red colour, and Nasser has recognised that tannic and gallic acids and pyrogallol, in the presence of neutral salts or acids, are coloured red-purple by iodine.

The so-called Soluble Starch contained in Vegetable Tissues. J. Dufour. (Ann. Agronom., xii. 297, 298; Journ. Chem. Soc., 1886, 903.) The so-called "soluble starch" found in the cell contents of the epidermis of certain plants is considered by Kraus to be really a tannin. The author's observations tend to show that at any rate it is not a carbohydrate analogous to ordinary starch. It may be a glucoside, but it gives none of the reactions of tannin with ammonium molybdate, ferric chloride, potassium bichromate, and gelatin. The author does not concur in Nägeli's suggestion that it is an albuminoid.

The plants containing most of this substance are Saponaria officinalis and Gypsophila perfoliata, Arum Italicum, Bryonia dioïca; several species of Hordeum, Ornithogalum umbellatum, and Gagea

lutea also contain it. In all these plants it occurs in the epidermis, but Nägeli believes that a similar body exists in various seeds (Anagyris foetida, Peganum harmala, etc). A fragment of the epidermis of Saponaria officinalis is speedily coloured an intense violet when immersed in iodised potassium iodide. An alcoholic tincture of iodine produces the same effect only after evaporation of the alcohol, when the blue compound is deposited in crystalline needles. The alcoholic extract of the leaves of S. officinalis, treated with ether to dissolve out chlorophyll, etc., and then with water to dissolve out the "soluble starch," yields a yellowish neutral solution. A drop of this evaporated on a glass slide deposits yellowish spheroidal crystals, with radial lines, but no trace of concentric striæ. These crystals do not swell out in hot water like starch granules.

Inosite. L. Maquenne. (Comptes Rendus, civ. 225-227; Journ. Chem. Soc., 1887, 355.) Walnut leaves are extracted methodically with about four times their weight of water, and the boiling solution is precipitated first with milk of lime, then with lead acetate, and finally with basic lead acetate, which forms an insoluble compound with the inosite. The last precipitate is washed with water, decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen, and the solution concentrated to a syrup. The boiling liquid is then mixed with 7 or 8 per cent. of concentrated nitric acid, which destroys nearly all the foreign matter without attacking the inosite, and, after cooling, a mixture of 4-5 vols. of alcohol with 1 vol. of ether is gradually added to the nearly colourless liquid. Inosite is thus separated as a colourless flocculent precipitate, which is recrystallized from dilute acetic acid, dissolved in water, again treated with nitric acid, and again precipitated with alcohol and ether. A small quantity of calcium sulphate, which always occurs in the product, is decomposed by adding barium hydrate, and the barium is removed by means of ammonium carbonate, the product being finally recrystallized from water. The yield is about 2.94 grams per kilo. of leaves.

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Anhydrous inosite has the composition C, H12O6, whilst the crystals have the composition Ce H12O6 + 2 H2O; they lose all their water at 110°. Inosite does not volatilise without decomposition, but its molecular weight can be determined by Raoult's cryoscopic method; that is, by determining the freezing point of its aqueous solution. The freezing point of a solution of 2.5 grams of inosite in 100 grams of water is 0.29°, whilst the calculated value for C6H12 Og is – 0·27°.

Inosite is only slightly soluble in cold, but very soluble in warm water. It is insoluble in alcohol, ether, and glacial acetic acid, but dissolves readily in dilute acetic acid, from which it can be easily crystallized. It melts at 217° without carbonisation, and boils with slight decomposition in a vacuum at 319°. When heated in the air, it burns readily. Solutions of inosite are optically inactive, both when freshly prepared and after they have been in contact with Penicillium glaucum for six weeks. Inosite is not attacked by boiling dilute acids or alkalies, does not reduce copper solutions, and is not acted on by ammoniacal silver nitrate alone, but in presence of sodium hydrate it yields a mirror of metallic silver. It does not combine with sodium hydrogen sulphite, is not reduced by sodium amalgam, and is not sensibly affected by halogens in the cold. When heated with bromine and water at 100°, it yields brown products precipitable by salts of barium, and similar to those obtained in Scherer's reaction. These compounds contain no bromine, and are oxidation-products which can be more readily prepared by the action of nitric acid.

A New Compound of Saccharose. A. Herzfeld. (Chem. Centr., 1886, 271.) The combination described by the author is obtained by suspending saccharates of alkaline earths in alcohol and treating with hydrochloric acid. A solution is thus obtained from which a calcium chloride compound of an ethyl ether of the sugar is slowly precipitated.

Oxidation-Products of Levulose. A. Herzfeld and E. Börnstein. (Chem. Centr., 1886, 187.) In order to study the action of weak oxidizing agents, the authors operated with mercuric oxide in presence of barium hydrate upon a boiling aqueous solution of levulose. The products obtained were glycollic acid and normal trihydroxybutyric acid.

Oxidation-Products of Levulose. A. Herzfeld and H. Winter. (Chem. Centr., 1886, 271-273.) The oxidation of solutions of-levulose by the gradual addition of bromine, continued over a period of several weeks, yielded (after removal of the bromine by treatment with lead and silver oxides) glycollic and trihydroxybutyric acids, the same products as were obtained by oxidation with mercuric oxide and barium hydrate (see preceding abstract).

Irisin. O. Wallach. (Liebig's Annalen, ccxxxiv. 364-375.) The rhizome of the water lily, Iris pseudacorus, contains a peculiar carbohydrate, called "irisin" by the author. Irisin, Cg H10 05+

2

H, O, closely resembles inulin, but is distinguished from the latter by its more powerful action on polarised light; [a] - 49° 9'

=