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XI.—On the Presence of Formic Acid in the Stinging Hairs of the Nettle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2014

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Extract

It is well known that when the stinging hairs of the common nettle (Urtica dioica or U. urens) are caused to discharge their contents upon blue litmus paper, intensely red spots are produced. On the subsequent exposure to the air of the paper thus spotted, the red colour gradually diminishes in intensity, and in a day or two is scarcely distinguishable, although it does not entirely disappear even after several weeks' exposure. This behaviour indicates that the reddening is due, in the main at least, to a volatile acid, and the range of acids probably present is thereby very strictly limited.

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Proceedings
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1920

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References

page 137 note * J. Prakt. Chem., vol. xlviii (1849), p. 191.

page 137 note † See, in particular, investigations by Bergmann (Bot. Zeit., vol. xl (1882), p. 731, etc.), who gives a review of the earlier literature.

page 137 note ‡ Compare Shannon, Journ. Indust. Engin. Chem., vol. iv (1912), p. 526.

page 138 note * Sitzungsber. der Akad. der Wissenschaft. Wien, vol. xciii, 1. (1886), p. 130.

page 138 note † Proc. Liverpool Biolog. Soc., vol. iv (1890), p. 93.

page 138 note ‡ Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, vol. xxxi (1906), p. 530.

page 139 note * Loc. cit., p. 132.

page 140 note * See Groth, Chemische Krystallographie, iii Teil (1910), p. 17.

page 141 note * Chemische Krystallographie, iii Teil (1910), p. 15.

page 141 note † Schweigger's Annalen, vol. iv (1812), pp. 36, 38, and figure. (It is to be noted that Bernhardi figures barium formate, but that the habit of lead formate is in some cases identical with that of barium formate. See Groth, loc. cit., p. 17.)

page 142 note * Compare Lieben, Monatshefte, vol. xix (1898), 352.

page 142 note † Vide ante, p. 138.