308 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



same, the yield of ethane, which at o° was 83 per cent, sank 

 to 57 per cent, at 65 , and 12 per cent, at 95°. 



Murray also investigated the amount of oxygen liberated 

 under different conditions, and this placed him in a position 

 to calculate the extent of oxidation occurring in each case. 

 He arrived at the result that under the conditions which, 

 according to the oxidation theory of the synthesis at the 

 anode, would be most favourable for complete oxidation to 

 take place, there occurred precisely the least amount of 

 complete oxidation. The oxidation theory, too, is quite 

 incompetent to account for the formation of methyl acetate 

 from the acetic acid, and indeed the assumption that ethane 

 itself is formed by the oxidation of acetic acid is one quite 

 without an analogue in organic chemistry. The assumption 

 on the other hand that the discharged ions interact directly, 

 accounts for the formation not only of ethane, but of all the 

 other products which have been observed. 



Further confirmation of the latter view is to be had 

 from the recent work of S. P. Mulliken, who electrolvsed 

 the sodium salts of compounds of the type of malonic ether. 

 Malonic ether is scarcely to be regarded as a true acid, but 

 it yields a compound EtOCO'CHNa'COOEt which is 

 derived from it by the replacement of one of its hydrogen 

 atoms by an atom of sodium. When the sodium atoms of 

 two molecules are removed by an agent such as iodine, 

 the residues unite with formation of the tetrethyl salt of 

 ethanetetracarboxylic acid, thus — 



COOEt COOEt COOEtCOOEt 



CHNa + I 2 + NaCH = CH — CH + 2 Nal 



COOEt COOEt COOEtCOOEt 



Now the ions formed by the sodium salt are — 



+ 



Na and COOEt 

 CH- . 

 COOEt 



The negative ion on electrolysis of the solution will be 



