liquor. To remove the last traces of acid the substance was melted and stirred into powdered quicklime, which was then slaked by means of a solution of potash. The porous mass thus obtained was extracted with hot motor spirit which on evaporation deposited a crystalline substance which after repeated crystallization melted at 59–60° and was unchanged by further crystallization.

On analysis, this substance gave the following values: 0°1492 grams gave 0°4713 grams CO₂ and 0°1882 grams H₂O.

The analysis shows that the substance is probably an olefinic hydrocarbon. This was confirmed by its behaviour with bromine water, which was rapidly decolourized when warmed with it. A rough determination of the bromine absorbed was as follows: 0°25 grams hydrocarbon absorbed 0°073 grams bromine.

Note.—Bromination was probably not complete, the reaction being only allowed to proceed for about three hours.

The molecular weight of the hydrocarbon as determined by the ebullio-scopic method pointed to a hydrocarbon of molecular weight 380.

0°64 grams hydrocarbon raised the boiling-point of 8°5 c.c. of anhydrous freshly distilled benzene 0°65°.

Molecular weight = 380. Calc. for C₂₈H₅₆ = 392.

The melting-point (59–60°), the analysis, and the molecular-weight determination all point to a hydrocarbon of the formula C₂₇H₅₄ or C₂₈H₅₆, but it is only by the preparation and analysis of the carefully purified dibrom addition product that we shall ascertain whether the substance contains 26, 27, or 28 atoms of carbon.

Part II.—The Acids of Montan Wax, and Some Compounds Derived From Them.

Since the ultimate aim of this research is to show the connection which exists between cerotic, montanic, and melissic acids, it follows that the physical constants of these acids, their melting-points, their molecular weights, and the properties and physical constants of their compounds should be accurately determined.

The accurate correlation of such data affords no small interest to the chemist, as has been pointed out by Krafft,^* Franchimont,^† and more recently by P. W. Robertson (“The Melting-points of the Anilides, P. Toluidides, and Naphthalides of the Normal Fatty Acids”).^‡ Furthermore, this series of fatty acids and their derivatives presents a group unsurpassed in the whole of organic chemistry for illustrating the principle of homology, and therefore it is desirable that the physical constants of