4306. Succinic acid

4306.    Succinic acid. This is obtained by mixing coarsely powdered amber with an equal weight of sand, and distilling it by a gradually increased heat; the product is purified by pressing it between bibulous paper, to remove the oil, and then subliming it. It forms colorless, inodorous crystalline scales, soluble in 5 parts cold or 2i parts boiling water; is fusible and volatile without decomposition. ( Cooley.)

4307. Aldehyd-Ammonia

4307.    Aldehyd-Ammonia. Take sulphuric acid, 6 parts; water, 4 parts; alcohol of 80 per cent., 4 parts; peroxide of manganese in fine powder, 6 parts. Dilute the acid with the water, then carefully add the alcohol, and next the manganese; agitate and distill with a gentle heat, from a spacious retort into a receiver surrounded with ice, and connected with the former perfectly air-tight. When 6 parts have distilled, re-distill this portion from its own weight of dried chloride of cal-cuim until 3 parts have come over, which must be again rectified in the same manner, until 1 1/2 parts of liquid are obtained in the receiver. This liquid must then be mixed with an equal bulk of ether, and the mixture saturated with dry ammoniacal gas; brilliant colorless prismatic crystals will form, which, after washing with ether and drying, are pure aldehyd-ammonia. It smells like turpentine; melts at 160° Fahr.; volatilizes, unchanged, at 212°; decomposed by exposure to the air; soluble in most menstrua except ether.

4308. Aldehyde

4308.       Aldehyde. Dissolve 8 parts aldehyd-ammonia in 8 parts water; place the solution in a retort, and add 7 parts sulphuric acid, diluted with about half its weight of water; then distill as directed in last receipt. Rectify the product twice from its own weight of dried muriate of lime, at a heat not exceeding 86° Fahr. It is an ethereous liquid, boiling at 72°; neutral, inflammable, mixed with water, alcohol, and ether; decomposed by exposure to the air, into liquid acetic acid; spoils by age.

4309. Sulphuret of Carbon

4309.    Sulphuret of Carbon. A colorless, pungent, foetid liquid, exceedingly volatile and combustible. It exceeds all substances in refractive power. In dispersive power it exceeds all fluid substances except oil of cassia. It produces intense cold by its evaporation. A spirit thermometer, having its bulb covered with cotton, if dipped into this fluid and suspended in the air, rapidly sinks from 60° to 0°, and if put into the receiver of an air-pump it will fall to - 81°. Mercury may be readily frozen in this way.

4310. To Prepare Sulphuret of Carbon

4310.    To Prepare Sulphuret of Carbon. Heat together in a close vessel 5 parts bisulphuret of iron, and 1 part well dried charcoal; or transmit the vapor of sulphur over fragments of charcoal heated to redness in a porcelain tube. In either case the resulting compound should be carried off as soon as formed, by means of a glass tube plunged into pounded ice, beneath which it will collect. It may be afterwards freed from adhering moisture and sulphur by distilling it at a low temperature from chloride of calcium.