Having lately had occasion to experiment with chloroform, upon a variety of substances, I have thought it might be useful, with a view to its further application, to make known the results obtained.
- 1. Resinous substances, gum mastic, colophony, elemi, balsam of tolu, benzoin, are very soluble cold, in all proportions of chloroform and their solutions in this liquid form varnishes, some of which might, I think, be usefully applied, when the price of chloroform shall be diminished.
- Gum copal and caoutchouc dissolve equally and almost entirely in this liquid, but more easily hot than cold.
- Amber, sandarac, and shellac, are only partially soluble in chloroform, whether hot or cold. The mixture of sandarac and chloroform separates into two layers; the lower one which holds in solution a certain quantity of resin, is fluid, whilst the upper one is of a gelatinous consistence.
- Olibanum dissolves with difficulty in it, either hot or cold.
- Gum guaiac and scammony resin, dissolve very easily in it; whilst on the contrary, pure jalap resin is insoluble; it becomes soft by contact with the liquid, and then floats on the top, as a pitch like mass. When the resin is very pure, the lower layer of chloroform has an amber color.
- Gamboge and gum dragon’s blood, also yield some of their substance to chloroform. The solution of gamboge being of a magnificent golden yellow, and that of the dragon’s blood of a beautiful red, these two substances might be advantageously used as varnishes.
- 2. Fixed Fats. Oils of olive, œillettes, almond, ricinus, cod, rape, euphorbia, lathyris, croton tiglium, lard, tallow, the concrete oils of palm and cocoa, spermaceti, and probably all the fixed fats, dissolve remarkably and in all proportions in chloroform. As to wax, according to M. Vogel, six or eight parts of chloroform added to one part of this substance when pure, dissolve only .25, whence this chemist supposes, that whenever wax treated with this liquid in the above {50} named proportions, leaves less than .75, it may be considered as having been mixed with tallow or stearic acid.
- I placed in a small tube, seven grammes of chloroform, and one gramme of pure white wax, shaking the mixture violently, at the end of six or eight hours the piece of wax had entirely disappeared, and the contents of the tube resembled an emulsion. The whole was passed through a filter of the weight of one gramme. A transparent liquid passed, which, exposed to spontaneous evaporation, left a residuum of pillular consistence weighing twenty-five centigrammes; whilst the filter which retained the portion of undissolved wax, left to the action of the air, until it no longer lost weight, was found to weigh one gramme, seventy-five centigrammes. The result of this experiment therefore, confirms the statement of the learned chemist of Munich.
- 3. Volatile oils. All are soluble in chloroform.
- 4. Simple metalloid bodies. We already know that iodine and bromine are soluble in chloroform, I have further ascertained that phosphorus and sulphur are slightly so.
- 5. Immediate neutral principles. Stryacine, piperine, naphtaline, cholesterine, are very soluble in chloroform. Pricrotoxine, slightly so. Parafine will only dissolve when warm, and on cooling, again floats on the top of the liquid. Amygdaline, phloridzine, salicine, digitaline, cynisin, urea, hematin, gluten, sugar, &c., are insoluble in it.
- 6. Organic acids. Benzoic and hippuric acids are very soluble in chloroform. Tannin is but slightly soluble, tartaric, citric, oxalic and gallic acids are insoluble in it.
- 7. Organic alkalies. Quinine, pure veratrine, emetine and narcotine are easily soluble in chloroform. Strychnine dissolves pretty well in it, and the solution, even when not saturated (one décigramme to two grammes of chloroform, for instance,) deposits, in twenty-four hours, a number of little tuberculiform crystals, which may perhaps be a modification of this alkaloid (an isomeric state), for their solution in dilute acids has appeared to me less bitter, and less easily precipitable by {51} ammonia than that of ordinary strychnine. Brucine is also quite soluble in chloroform. Morphine and cinchonine are insoluble.
- 8. Salts of organic acids. Tartar emetic, the acetates of potash and soda, lactate of iron, citrate of iron, valerianate of zinc, and acetate of lead do not dissolve in chloroform.
- 9. Salts with organic bases. Sulphate and hydrochlorate of strychnine, are tolerably soluble in chloroform, whilst sulphate of quinine, hydrochlorate and sulphate of morphine are insoluble.
- 10. Haloid salts. Iodide and bromide of potassium, the chlorides of sodium, potassium and ammonia, the iodides of mercury and lead, the yellow prussiate of potash, the cyanides of mercury and potassium do not dissolve in chloroform. Chloride of mercury is very soluble.
- 11. Oxysalts. The iodates, chlorates, nitrates, phosphates, sulphates, chromates, borates, arseniates and alkaline hyposulphates are completely insoluble in chloroform. The same may be said of nitrate of silver, sulphate of copper, and probably of all the metallic oxysalts.
The above facts prove: 1st That chloroform dissolves, with a very few exceptions, all bodies soluble in ether; but as it dissolves copal, caoutchouc, &c., much better than this latter substance, this property will become serviceable when the price of chloroform shall be lowered.
2nd. That contrary to what was formerly believed, it dissolves shellac much less easily than alcohol.
3rd. That it may be employed instead of ether, to separate quinine from cinchonine, narcotine from morphine, guaiac resin from jalap resin, which substances are often found mixed together in commerce.
4th. That it dissolves in large proportions strychnine, brucine, and emetine, alkaloids, which are almost insoluble in ether.
5th. Finally, that it does not dissolve tartaric, citric, oxalic and gallic acids, amygdaline, phloridzine, salicine, digitaline, hematine, gluten, &c., all which bodies are soluble in alcohol, {52} nor the chlorides, bromides, iodides, or nitrates, salts, all soluble in the same vehicle.
I think it right also to add the following observation, because it tends to corroborate a fact recently stated in the Journal de Chimie Médicale, by my friend and former colleague, M. Aujendre, assayer at the mint of Constantinople, namely that chloroform possesses antiseptic properties. Having accidentally left in a half filled, but corked bottle, during a month (from April 10, to May 12), in my laboratory, where the variations of temperature are very frequent, some milk mixed with about a hundredth part of chloroform, I was rather surprised, on examining the milk, to find that it had preserved the fluidity and homogeneity of the liquid when freshly drawn, and that it could even be boiled without turning.—Journal de Chimie Médicale in L’Abeille Médicale.
[NOTE.—Chloroform will preserve Anatomical and Pathological Specimens without changing their color, or apparently their texture.]—ED. N. Y. JOURNAL OF PHARMACY.