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Article VIII.
Experiments on the Essential Oil of the Spiræa Ulmaria, or Meadow-Sweet; by Dr. Löwig, Professor of Chemistry at Zurich[1].
From J. C. Poggendorff's Annalen der Physik und Chemie; Berlin, Second Series, vol. v. p. 596.
WHILST by the examination of plants and vegetable matters we have acquired the knowledge of a great number of oxyacids with compound radicals, with the exception of prussic acid no such hydracid has been shown to exist in organic nature; and of hydracids with ternary radicals, if we except the sulphocyanic acid, we have not the slightest knowledge.
The constancy of the phænomena which oil of bitter almonds presents, have not only led to the positive knowledge of the existence of ternary radicals, but also to the fact that oxyacids exist with ternary bases containing oxygen.
By means of the experiments made with the essential oil of the blossoms of the Spiræa Ulmaria, described in the following treatise, the first hydracid with a ternary radical in organic nature has been discovered in a most extraordinary manner, and they give every reason to hope that the radical of the same may also be isolated.
The reader must excuse the circumstances that the experiments are not carried further, and that some of the most important appearances when remarked have not been further pursued, as for all the experiments, there was only a very small quantity of material at the disposal of the experimenter.
If also, on account of the small quantity of the oil which could be subjected to research, each experiment was conducted only on a small scale, especially as regards the analysis, and could only be seldom repeated, the coincidence of each separate experiment may perhaps in part supply the want of repetition. Should however the analytical results experience any small change by later repeated experiments, we may nevertheless be sure that the facts themselves of which this Memoir treats will lose nothing in importance.
By means of this communication the attention of chemists may be drawn to the oil of the Spiræa, so that not only a repetition of these experiments, but also a further extension of them may be expected with certainty from other chemists.
