This paper is intended to be the continuation of a previous paper on "The Crystalline Structure and Properties of Tartaric Acid” (‘Roy. Soc. Proc., A, February, 1923). Racemic acid, COOH. CH(OH). CH(OH). COOH, is the variety of tartaric acid which is optically inactive by “external compensation,” that is, it is inactive in virtue of the fact that it consists of equal numbers of right- and left-handed molecules of active tartaric acid. It crystallises in two distinct forms, one of which is anhydrous while the other is a monohydrate. But both forms belong to the triclinic pinakoidal class of symmetry, the monohydrate growing at ordinary temperatures and the anhydrous acid above a temperature of about 70° C. This paper deals with the structure of the anhydrous form.
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W. T. ASTBURY (1923) studied this question.