First of all, I took a number of cones, cut them up into small pieces,
and placed them in a large glass beaker, then nearly filled it with
distilled water, and heated to about 80° C., keeping the decoction at
this temperature for about half an hour, I occasionally stirred with a
glass rod, and then allowed it to cool, and filtered. This filtrate
was then evaporated nearly to dryness, when a small quantity of
six-sided prisms crystallized out, which subsequently were found to be
the hydrate of phenol (C_{6}H_{5}HO)_{2}H_{2}O. Its melting point was
found to be 17.2° C. Further, the crystals already referred to were
dissolved in ether, and then allowed to evaporate, when long colorless
needles were obtained, which, on being placed in a dry test tube and
the tube placed in a water bath kept at 42° C., were found to melt;
and on making a careful combustion analysis of these crystals, the
following composition was obtained:

Carbon 76.6
Hydrogen 6.4
Oxygen 17.0
-----
100.0

This gives C_{6}H_{6}O, which is the formula for phenol.

On dissolving some of these crystals in water (excess) and adding
ferric chloride, a beautiful violet color was imparted to the
solution. To another aqueous solution of the crystals was added
bromine water, and a white precipitate was obtained, consisting of
tribromophenol. An aqueous solution of the crystals immediately
coagulated albumen.