JULES BOUIS Castor oil, fats, steel, and mercury(I) cyanide

Abstract

Jules Bouis (1822-1886) was a French pharmacist that made a detailed study of castor oil. With the help of heat and distillation he separated and prepared a variety of compounds, such as oenantol, ricinolamide, ricinelaidic, caprylic, phosphocaprylic, and sebacic acids, ricinelaidine, caprylic alcohol, caprylene, capryl halides, sulfocaprylates, and capril amine. He also provided a detailed description of the physical and chemical properties of these compounds. Bouis analyzed the phenomena of solidification and fusion, particularly of fatty materials, and proposed a new method for their best determination based on covering the bulb of the thermometer with a thin layer of the material being tested. He explained the changes in the values of these parameters, when repeating the fusion-solidification cycle, as caused by a change in the structure of the solid phase. He gave a detailed tabulation of the variation of these parameters with the composition of a fatty mixture. Bouis studied the action of chlorine on mercury(I) cyanide in the dark and under the influence of sunlight and discovered a new derivative of formula C8N4Cl8,C4Cl6, methylene chloromesitate, and the existence of several cyanogene chlorides. Bouis studied the action of hydrogen on wrought iron and steel and found that it always generated ammonia from the outer layer of the metal and that steel contained much less nitrogen than wrought iron. This treatment transformed wrought iron into a very crystalline and fragile material that did not keep magnetism.