4. If the ratio falls below 3.6, stearic acid or resin has been used as the adulterant.
PHENOL IN THE STEM, LEAVES, AND CONES OF PINUS SYLVESTRIS.
A DISCOVERY BEARING ON THE FLORA OF THE CARBONIFEROUS EPOCH AND THE FORMATION OF PETROLEUM.
By A.B. GRIFFITHS, Ph.D., F.C.S. Membre de la Societe Chimique de Paris, Medallist in Chemistry and Botany, etc.
Having found, in small quantities, alcohols of the CnH2n-7 series, last summer, in the stem, acicular leaves, and cones of Pinus sylvestris, I wish in this paper to say a few words on the subject.
First of all, I took a number of cones, cut them up into small pieces, and placed them in a large glass beaker, then nearly filled it with distilled water, and heated to about 80° C., keeping the decoction at this temperature for about half an hour, I occasionally stirred with a glass rod, and then allowed it to cool, and filtered. This filtrate was then evaporated nearly to dryness, when a small quantity of six-sided prisms crystallized out, which subsequently were found to be the hydrate of phenol (C6H5HO)2H2O. Its melting point was found to be 17.2° C. Further, the crystals already referred to were dissolved in ether, and then allowed to evaporate, when long colorless needles were obtained, which, on being placed in a dry test tube and the tube placed in a water bath kept at 42° C., were found to melt; and on making a careful combustion analysis of these crystals, the following composition was obtained:
| Carbon | 76.6 |
| Hydrogen | 6.4 |
| Oxygen | 17.0 |
| 100.0 |
This gives C6H6O, which is the formula for phenol.
On dissolving some of these crystals in water (excess) and adding ferric chloride, a beautiful violet color was imparted to the solution. To another aqueous solution of the crystals was added bromine water, and a white precipitate was obtained, consisting of tribromophenol. An aqueous solution of the crystals immediately coagulated albumen.