Butyric Ether, or PINE-APPLE OIL,

Butyric Ether, or PINE-APPLE OIL, is an exceedingly fragrant oil obtained by distilling butyric acid (or the butyrate of lime), alcohol, and sulphuric acid. The material which passes over is the butyric ether, and it is generally mixed with alcohol, and sold in commerce as Artificial Pine-apple Oil. It possesses the same very pleasant flavour which belongs to pine-apples, and there is little doubt that pine-apples owe their flavour to the presence of natural butyric ether. The artificial variety is now extensively used for flavouring confections, as pine-apple drops, for sophisticating bad rum, and for flavouring custards, ices, and creams, as also an acidulated drink or lemonade named Pine-apple Ale. Butyric ether alone cannot be used in perfumery for handkerchief use, as, when inhaled in even small quantity, it tends to cause irritation of the air-tubes of the lungs and intense headache, but it is employed as one material in the manufacture of compound perfumes. Butyric ether is the butyrate of ethyl, $C\_2H\_5C\_4H\_7O\_2$, and is similar to butyrate of sodium, $NaC\_4H\_7O\_2$, in composition, the sodium, Na, being in this case replaced by the organic radical ethyl, $C\_2H\_5$. It is remarkable that a substance possessing such a disagreeable odour as butyric acid (that of rancid butter) should be capable of forming, in part at least, a substance with such a pleasant flavour as artificial pine-apple oil.