ACETIC ACID (acidum aceticum)

This article appears in Volume V01, Page 136 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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ACETIC ACID (acidum aceticum) , CH3CO2H, one of the most important organic acids. It occurs naturally in the juice of ' See Gibbon, ch. xlvii. (vol. v. p. 129 in Bury's ed.).
many plants, and as the esters of n-hexyl and n-octyl alcohols in the seeds of Heracleum giganteum, and in the fruit of Heracleum sphondylium, but is generally obtained, on the large scale, from the oxidation of spoiled wines, or from the destructive distillation' of

wood

. In the former process it is obtained in the form of a dilute aqueous solution, in which also the colouring matters of the wine, salts, &c., are dissolved; and this impure acetic acid is what we ordinarily term vinegar (q.v.). Acetic acid (in the form of vinegar) was known to the ancients, who obtained it by the oxidation of alcoholic liquors.

Wood

-vinegar was discovered in the, middle ages. Towards the close of the 18th century, A. L. Lavoisier showed that air was necessary to the formation of vinegar from alcohol. In 183o J. B. A. Dumas converted acetic acid into trichloracetic acid, and in 1842 L. H. F. Melsens reconverted this derivative into the

original

ORIGINAL

acetic acid by reduction with sodium amalgam. The synthesis of trichloracetic acid from its elements was accomplished in 1843 by H. Kolbe; this taken in conjunction with Melsens's observation provided the first synthesis of acetic acid. An-hydrous acetic acidglacial acetic acidis a leafy crystalline mass melting at 16.70 C., and possessing an exceedingly pungent smell. It boils at 118, giving a vapour of abnormal specific gravity. It dissolves in water in all proportions with at first a contraction and afterwards an increase in volume. It is detected by heating with

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

alcohol and sulphuric acid, which gives rise to acetic ester or ethyl acetate, recognized by its fragrant odour; or by heating with arsenious

oxide

OXIDE

, which forms the pungent and poisonous cacodyl

oxide

OXIDE

. It is a monobasic acid, forming one normal and two acid potassium salts, and basic salts with iron, aluminium, lead and copper. Ferrous and ferric acetates are used as mordants; normal lead acetate is known in commerce as sugar of lead (q.v.); basic copper acetates are known as

verdigris

VERDIGRIS

(q.v.).
Pharmacology and Therapeutics.Glacial acetic acid is occasionally used as a caustic for corns. The dilute acid, or vinegar, may be used to bathe the skin in fever, acting as a pleasant refrigerant. Acetic acid has no valuable properties for internal administration. Vinegar, however, which contains about 5 % acetic acid, is frequently taken as a cure for obesity, but there is no warrant for this application. Its continued employment may, indeed, so injure the mucous membrane of the stomach as to interfere with digestion and so cause a morbid and dangerous reduction in weight.
The acetates constitute a valuable group of medicinal agents, the potassium salt being most frequently employed. After absorption into the blood, the acetates are oxidized to carbonates, and therefore are remote alkalies, and are administered whenever it is desired to increase the alkalinity of. the blood or to reduce the acidity of the urine, without exerting the disturbing influence of alkalies upon the digestive

tract

TRACT (from Lat. tractare, to treat of a matter, through Provencal tractat and Ital. trattato)

. The citrates act in precisely similar fashion, and may be substituted. They are somewhat more pleasant but more expensive.
ACETO-ACETIC ESTER, C6H1003 or CH3COCH2000C2H5, a chemical substance discovered in 1863 by A. Geuther, who showed that the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

product of the action of sodium on ethyl acetate was a sodium compound of composition C6H903Na, which on treatment with acids gave a colourless, somewhat oily liquid of composition CeHlo03. E. Frankland and B. F. Duppa in 1865 examined the reaction and concluded that Geuther's sodium salt was a derivative of the ethyl ester of

acetone

ACETONE, or DIMETHYL KETONE

carboxylic acid and possessed the constitution CH3COCHNa000C2H5. This view was not accepted by Geuther, who looked upon his compound C6H1003 as being an acid: J. Wislicenus also investigated the reaction very thoroughly and accepted the Frankland-Duppa

formula

(Annalen, 1877, 186, p. 163; 1877, 19o, P. 257)
The substance is best prepared by drying ethyl acetate over calcium chloride and treating it with sodium wire, which is best introduced in one operation; the liquid boils and is then heated on a water bath for some hours, until the sodium all dissolves. After the reaction is completed, the liquid is acidified with dilute sulphuric acid (1:5) and then shaken
with salt solution, separated from the salt solution, washed, dried and fractionated. The portion boiling between 175 and 185C. is redistilled. The yield amounts to about 3o% of that required by theory.
A. Ladenburg and J. A. Wanklyn have shown that pure ethyl acetate free from alcohol will not react with sodium to produce aceto-acetic ester. L. Claisen, whose views are now accepted, studied the reactions of sodium ethylate and showed that if sodium ethylate be used in place of sodium in the above re-action the same result is obtained. He explains the reactions
thus: 0 /ONa

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