1333 blue oxide of tungsten, suffers no decomposition a t temperatures up to 400'. A trace of moisture, however, causes decomposition and the evolution of hydrogen sulfide. 9. In the presence of any of the three metallic oxides employed as catalysts, a mixture of absolute alcohol and carbon disulfide produced considerable quantities of ethyl mercaptan. Titanium dioxide, which had been almost without action upon alcohol alone, proved the most active catalyst for this esterification. This new

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... od may be advantageous for the synthesis of certain mercaptans. From alcohol and carbon disulfide, amounts of high-boiling liquids were obtained, but in quantities too small for identification. We obtained no other evidence of the formation of esters of thiocarbonic acids by interaction of alcohol and carbon disulfide. ' 0. The method of Maly4 has been used extensively for preparing abietic acid. Rosin is heated with 70% alcohol, whereby after some hours it partly dissolves and partly crystallizes. The impure crystals are treated in the same way with dil. alcohol a number of times and finally repeatedly recrystallized from strong alcohol. The method is tedious and the yield of pure product is very low. -~ Published by permission of the Director of the Bureau of Standards. Knecht and Hibbert, J. SOC. Dyers Colour., 35, 150 (1919).