Familiar letters on chemistry. Second series, The philosophical principles and general laws of the science / By Justus Liebig ... Edited by John Gardner.

  • Liebig, Justus, Freiherr von, 1803-1873.
Date:
1844
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Familiar letters on chemistry. Second series, The philosophical principles and general laws of the science / By Justus Liebig ... Edited by John Gardner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    171/244 (page 155)
    oil is, therefore, heavier than water; it is also volatile, and has a powerful smell and taste of bitter almonds : moreover, it is characterised by the property of solidifying, when exposed to the air with the absorption of oxygen, into inodorous crystals of benzoic acid. Besides this volatile oil, —which is an article of commerce to a considerable amount, being used in perfumery,—the water passing over contains also a considerable propor- tion of hydrocyanic acid. Neither of these two products of the distillation of bitter almonds with water, namely, hydrocyanic acid and oil of bitter almonds, can be detected by any means in the bitter almond itself. Were they contained in the bitter almond, as oil of turpentine exists in the resin of the pine, or oil of roses in the rose-petals, we might, of course, feel assured that they would admit of being extracted from the almonds by means of fatty or fixed oils, or other solvents. But the fat oil, which is easily obtained from bitter almonds by pressure, is as bland and insipid as that expressed from sweet almonds; not the slightest trace of hydrocyanic acid, nor of the volatile oil of bitter almonds, can be detected in it, although both substances are readily soluble in it. If bitter almonds are boiled with alcohol, not