AN ISOPICRAMINIC ACID. BY CHAS. W. DABNEY, of Raleigh, N. C.

3 59

PICRAMINIC acid, C, H, N ̧ Оs, was discovered by Wöhler. It is prepared from picric acid by reducing one of the nitro groups with various reducing agents. Picric acid is a diorthoparanitrophenol C, H, OH, 2NO, NO,. This is established by the fact that it is made as well from a as from ẞ dinitrophenol.

That the amido group in picraminic acid is in one of the ortho positions is proven by the following argument:-A dinitrobenzoylamidophenol has been made from the well known orthobenzoylamidophenol, C, H,, ÓH, NйCOC, H,, and its mononitro derivative paranitroorthobenzoylamidophenol, C, H, OH, NO, NÉCOC, H. This by splitting off the benzoyl group yielded the well known picraminic acid. And the picraminic acid so prepared has been reduced to the familiar orthoparanitrophenol by removing the amido group.

Further the benzoyl derivative of picraminic acid yielded the anhydro compound, which is only possible when the amido group stands in the ortho position to the hydroxyl group. The constitution of picraminic acid is therefore to be represented by graphical formula, figure No. 1 :

The Isopicraminic acid to be here noticed was obtained by indirect methods starting from a metanitrosalicylic acid. This is converted into the corresponding benzoylamido acid, Ce H3, COOH, OH, NHCOC, H. As a new body this was duly investigated. By nitrating this I got a dinitrophenol through the elimination of the carboxyl group. This is the benzoyl derivative of the new picra

minic acid and the acid is obtained from it by splitting off the benzoyl group.

The new acid and its derivative were compared with the known pieraminic acid and its benzoyl derivative. The bodies themselves and all their salts were found to differ markedly. The isomerism is to be explained as follows::- It has been proven that the amido group in metamidosalicylic acid from which it is derived is in the para position to the hydroxyl. This is sufficient to explain the isomerism since it was shown that the amido group is ortho to the hydroxyl group in the known picraminic acid. The constitution of the new acid is represented in contrast with that of the known by figure No. 2.

N. B. For figures and details see dissertation Göttingen, 1880.

THE LIMITED BIOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE OF SYNTHETIC ACHIEVEMENTS IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. By A. B. PRESCOTT, of Ann Arbor, Mich.

[ABSTRACT]

FOR half a century there has been a degree of solicitude as to the biological bearing of organic chemical synthesis. This has been due to uncertain and mistaken conceptions of the scope of chemical action. It has been assumed that, if we admit the existence of chemical action in living tissues, we must ascribe cell structure and perhaps even vital functions to this chemical action and must conceive it as being independent of the activities peculiar to living tissues. There ought to be no doubt about organic matter being in a state of chemical union, for the elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, are evidently not chemically free in the proteid tissue substances. Having now a more definite recognition of the chemical character of all matter, in the modern idea of the molecule, it is evident (1) that the matter of protoplasm is at all events in a state of chemical combination. But (2) it by no means follows that chemical action supplies protoplasm with its power for cell organization. As chemism (the pro

duction of molecules) is distinct from cohesion and adhesion (certain aggregations of molecules), it is even more in contrast with cell formation (a specific aggregation of molecules). Mutual corelations have been established between chemism on the one hand, and cohesion and adhesion, also heat, etc., on the other hand. We say that chemical action is wholly dependent upon conditions, that is, influences, of cohesion and adhesion (solubilities), and of heat (temperatures), etc. But no one denies the chemical nature of a compound because non-chemical activities are essential to its production. Now very few co-relations between chemism and cell growth have been ascertained. But some do demur as to the chemical nature of the material giving origin to cells. The existence of constant co-relations between chemical action and cell formation is highly probable. An example is declared in the alcoholic fermentation. The simple splitting of sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, a definite chemical change, in direction toward the inorganic, is wholly dependent on cell-growth. The chemical synthesis of proteids, and other bodies, may be found to require cell growth. On the other hand, it may be found that some other activity can supply the place of the yeast-cell, in the conversion of sugar into alcohol, etc.; and inorganic activities may substitute those of the cell in providing for various organic syntheses. Whether any coöperation of chemical activities, with inorganic materials and helps, can synthesize a protoplasm that can start a cell, is just the old question of abiogenesis, with addition of some questions of organic chemical syntheses. They have experimented as to abiogenesis, taking proteids ready made (and experiment alone can decide). The synthesis of proteids from inorganic sources would not have the least bearing on questions of spontaneous generation. The vegetable cell-wall is nearly pure cellulose, a chemical compound so simple and stable that it is likely to be attained by the chemist as a so-called artificial product. But it will be no easier to raise cells out of artificial cellulose than it is to raise cells out of the amorphous vegetable cellulose that the chemist precipitates by acidulating its cuprammonium solution. Chemical action is separated as by a gulf from the aggregation of molecules into cells. Across this gulf, as across all boundary lines in nature, there may be cables of mutual influence. But these co-relations must be found before they can be assumed as the basis of doctrine.

EVIDENCE OF ATOMIC MOTION WITHIN LIQUID MOLECULES, AS BASED UPON THE SPEED OF CHEMICAL ACTION. By R. B. WARDER, of North Bend, Ohio.

THE experimental evidence upon which the argument of this paper is based has already been published; namely, my own determinations of the speed of the saponification of acetic ether at different temperatures (Ber. d. c. G., 14, 1361) and Weber's determinations of liquid diffusion (Wied. Ann., 71, 469 and 536).

From the twenty determinations of the speed of saponification just cited (which are indicated in the accompanying figure) I have deduced an empirical formula of the form.

where a denotes the

ture of the mixture.

a=A+Bt2

"coefficient of speed" and t is the tempera

Weber shows, on the other hand (loc. cit.,

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF FISH; BY W. O. ATWATER.

71

page 549), that the diffusion constant varies nearly according to the linear equation,

kA'B' t.

These two lines are also presented in the diagram, the ordinates of the latter being multiplied by ten to facilitate the comparison. Now when chemical action takes place in a very dilute solution, the action will often be retarded for hours or days; the unlike molecules cannot react upon each other unless they are brought very near together; and in what we call a homogeneous fluid, this takes place by diffusion. Any change of conditions by which the diffusion is increased may likewise increase the speed of chemical action. But while the increase in the diffusion constant, for dilute solutions, varies nearly as the first power of the temperature, the increase of chemical action (in the case before us) is nearly as the second power of the temperature. From these facts I conclude that the increase in the rate of diffusion alone is not sufficient to account for the increased rate of chemical action, and a second cause for the increased speed of the reaction must be sought in the atomic motion within the liquid molecules. If the amplitude of the atomic vibrations or orbits is increased by raising the temperature (no matter what the nature of those vibrations may be), we must suppose that they recede farther from the conditions of mean equilibrium, the stability of the molecule would probably be diminished thereby, and the frequency of the metathesis would accordingly be increased, as shown by the determinations already published.

THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF FISH AND INVERTEBRATES. By W. O. ATWATER, of Middletown, Conn.

[ABSTRACT]

At the Boston meeting of the Association, an account was given of analyses of the flesh of a number of species of fish used as food, the work being part of an investigation of the chemistry and economic values of American food-fishes and invertebrates, undertaken under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution and U. S. Fish Commission. The present paper gives an account of