Abstract
In a Paper on new compounds of carbon and hydrogen , lately honoured by the Royal Society with a place in the Philosophical Transactions, I had occasion briefly to notice, the peculiar action exerted on certain of those compounds by sulphuric acid. During my attempts to ascertain more minutely the general nature of this action, I was led to suspect the occasional combination of the hydro-carbonaceous matter with the acid, and even its entrance into the constitution of the salts, which the acid afterwards formed with bases. Although this opinion proved incorrect, relative to the peculiar hydro-carbons forming the subject of that Paper, yet it led to experiments upon analogous bodies, and amongst others, upon naphthaline, which terminated in the production of the new acid body and salts now to be described. Some of the results obtained by the use of the oil gas products are very peculiar. If, when completed, I find them sufficiently interesting, I shall think it my duty to place them before the Royal Society, as explicatory of that action of sulphuric acid which was briefly noticed in my last Paper.