SUCCINIC acid, in chemistry, obtained from the decomposition of amber, was for merly called volatile salt of amber, and regarded as an alkaline salt. It was not tilt towards the end of the seventeenth century, that its acid properties were dis covered. See Amiga.
The name of the acid is derived from succinum, the Latin name for amber. It may be obtained by the following process : Introduce a quantity of amber, in pow der, into a retort, and let it be covered with dry sand. Adapt a receiver, and distil with a moderate heat in a sand bath. There passes over first a liquid, which is of a reddish colour, and after wards a volatile acid salt, which crystal lizes in small white or yellowish nee dles in the neck of the retort ; and if the distillation be continued, a white, light oil succeeds, which becomes blown, thick, and viscid. The acid which is ob tained in this way is contaminated with the oil ; and therefore, to separate this oil, it may be dissolved in hot water, and passed through a filter, on which has Leen placed a little cotton moistened with oil of amber, which retains the oil, and pre vents it from passing through along with the acid. The acid may then be evapo
rated and crystallized. The crystals are four-sided, rhomboidal plates, which, if pure, are white. Their taste is sour, and they redden .an infusion of litmus. They are soluble in twenty-four parts of cold water, but in much less of hot. They are soluble also in alcohol. This acid is volatile and inflammable its base is a compound of carbon and hydrogen. It combines with the alkalies, earths, and metallic oxides, forming therewith salts called suc,cinates. Most of these crystal lize, as the succinate of potash, soda, lime Ice. but the succinate of magnesia will not crystallize, but by evaporation forms a viscid mass. The metallic succinatea are likewise soluble and crystallizable.