M. Kolbe on the Constitution of Organic Compounds. 45 



Oxide of ethylene was prepared by Wurtz by the action of 

 potash on hydrochloric glycol ; for the preparation of oxide of 

 amylene, Bauer treated amylglycol with diluted hydrochloric 

 acid, and then mixed the crude product thus obtained, which 

 consisted mainly of hydrochloric amylglycol, with potash, and 

 distilled the mixture. The distillate consisted of water with a 

 layer of an oily liquid. This was removed, dried, and repeatedly 

 rectified. It boiled at 95°, but could not be freed from traces of 

 a chlorinated compound. The analyses and determination of 

 the vapour density left no doubt that it was oxide of amylene, 

 e 5 H ,o 0, corresponding to oxide of ethylene, G 2 H 4 0. Its 

 formation may be thus expressed : — 



2(G 5 H 11 C19) + K 2 O=2KCl + 2€ 5 H 10 e + H 2 O. 



Hydrochloric Chloride of Oxide of 



amylglycol. potassium. amylene. 



Oxide of amylene boils at about 95°, and has the spec. grav. 

 08244 ; it burns steadily with a yellow flame. It has an agree- 

 able etherial odour, and a bitter taste. It is insoluble in water, 

 but dissolves in alcohol, in ether, in amylglycol, and in acids. 

 Heated with acetic acid, it is converted into acetate of amyl- 

 glycol. 



In a series of recent communications, Kolbe has developed 

 certain views of the constitution of several of the principal series 

 of organic compounds. These views are supported by a wide 

 variety of illustrations from organic chemistry ; and several in- 

 teresting investigations have been undertaken by Kolbe and his 

 pupils in order to test their validity. Without going too much 

 into detail it is impossible to give the grounds on which these 

 views are based ; but the investigations to which they have given 

 rise will probably be intelligible from the following statement. 



Organic compounds he considers to be derived from inorganic 

 compounds, and usually resulting from them by simple processes 

 of substitution. Carbonic acid plays the most important part 

 among those inorganic compounds which serve as starting points 

 for organic bodies. Liebig had already pointed out (in 1847) 

 that many important compounds, alcohol, sugar, formic acid, 

 stood in close relation to carbonic acid, and were derivable from 

 it by the substitution of hydrogen for oxygen. It must be con- 

 sidered certain that starch, sugar, gum, the vegetable acids, &c, 

 which are found in plants where the decomposition of carbonic 

 acid takes place, are formed, at any rate indirectly, from this 

 carbonic acid. This idea of the connexion between these bodies 

 and carbonic acid is rendered antecedently probable by the 

 relations of these formulae, and by their mode of occurrence ; 

 and it has been made more probable since it has been found 



