CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 229 



absorbent of ammonia ; in experiments made it was found to be capa- 

 ble, in a moist s.tate, of absorbing fully two per cent, of ammonia, 

 without acquiring an alkaline reaction, and, when exposed to the air 

 until it had become tolerably dry, of retaining no less than about 1 

 per cent. Prof. Norton says, that he sees no reason why the same 

 action is not to be expected from our more easily decomposible muck, 

 nor why some of its well known beneficial effects in composts may not 

 be thus clearly explained. The material from the Scottish swamps 

 becomes hard when dried, and requires considerable power to reduce it 

 to a fine state of division ; ours crumbles naturally away, and might 

 easily be dried if spread out in the hot sunny weather of summer. 

 It would then be in the most advantageous state for mixing with ma- 

 nure heaps, spreading over the bottom of barn-yards, or soaking up 

 the liquid of tanks. 



MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF THE ORGANIC BASES. 



HOFMAXN has communicated to the Royal Society, England, a series 

 of researches on the constitution of the organic bases, which have 

 thrown a flood of light upon this department of organic chemistry. In 

 a former memoir the author had demonstrated that the three equiva- 

 lents of hydrogen in ammonia are susceptible of being successively 

 replaced by the radicals of the ethyl series, yielding a series of ammo- 

 nias, represented by the general formula, N, (X, Y, Z,) in which for- 

 mula, X, Y, and Z represent either hydrogen or an ethyl radical. 

 The combination of these new ammonias with acids may be regarded 

 as ammoniums, in which one or more equivalents of hydrogen are 

 replaced by methyl, ethyl, &c. Hofmann now finds that the four 

 equivalents of hydrogen in ammonium are susceptible of replacement 

 by other radicals. In the present memoir, eight new ammoniums are 

 described, in all of which hydrogen is completely replaced by other 

 radicals. An oxide of a new base, N (C 4 , H 5 ) 40, has been ob- 

 tained, which possesses remarkable properties. As a liquid, it ex- 

 hibits the strongest analogy to the caustic alkalies, potash and soda, 

 possesses a pungent bitter taste, and, when concentrated, acts upon 

 the epidermis, which it destroys like caustic potassa ; like this, too, it 

 saponifies fats, decomposes oxalic ether into oxalic acid and alcohol, 

 expels ammonia from its salts, even in the cold, and may be substi- 

 tuted for potassa in Trommer's well known test for sugar. In its action 

 upon metallic salts, the new oxide is also exactly analogous to caustic 

 potassa. It yields, however, no amalgum corresponding to the well 

 known butyraceous ammonium compound. 



In conclusion, the author directs attention to the important theoret- 

 ical bearing of the new alkaloids. In the first place, it is to be ob- 

 served that the action of the bromides or iodides of the alcohol radicals 

 upon ammonia give rise to not less than four distinct groups of organic 

 bases ; three of these ammonias are volatile ; the fourth ammo- 

 niums are fixed. The passage from a volatile to a non-volatile 

 organic base, may, therefore, be simply due to the fixation of a single 

 equivalent of a radical capable of replacing hydrogen ; and the produc- 

 tion of volatile bases by the action of caustic potassa upon the fixed 



20 



