The Art of Perfumery, and Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants

The boiling-point of butyric ether is 238° Fahr. Its specific gravity, 0.904, and its formula, C{12}H{12}O{4}, or C{4}H{5}O + C{8}H{7}O{3}. Bensch's process, above described, for the production of butyric acid, affords a remarkable exemplification of the extraordinary transformations that organic bodies undergo in contact with ferment, or by catalytic action. When cane sugar is treated with tartaric acid, especially under the influence of heat, it is converted into grape sugar. This grape sugar, in the presence of decomposing nitrogenous substances, such as cheese, is transformed in the first instance into lactic acid, which combines with the lime of the chalk. The acid of the lactate of lime, thus produced, is by the further influence of the ferment changed into butyric acid. Hence, butyrate of lime is the final result of the catalytic action in the process we have here recommended.