92 Dr. Wrightson on the Atomic Weight and 



Acetate of ammonium-oxide. Cyanide of methyle. 



i " > i " ' 



2 (C 2 h 3 01 Q \ +x p 5=2((Ch 3 ) .Cn) + 4H 2 + xP0 & 

 V h n J / J (Williamson). 



No further argument will be needful; I think, to show that 

 Williamson's ' othyle ' theory is not based upon scientific prin- 

 ciples. Notwithstanding this, however, his theory of the alco- 

 hols and aethers may be true. If the assumptions, however, 

 upon which it is founded are correct, we shall have so far to 

 modify our. views of the constitution of acetic acid expressed in 



the formula HO . (C 2 H 3 ) C 2 O 3 , that instead of one equivalent 



C 2 H 3 of methyle, we must assume two atoms 2 Ch 3 to exist in 

 one equivalent of acetic acid, and its constitution would be ex- 



pressed by the rational formula h 2 . (C 2 h 3 ) 2 "C 2 , O 3 , or rather by 

 that of acetic aether by the formula 



c 2 hn /ch 3 C, 3. 



and in these bodies, conformable to Williamson's theory, one 

 atom of the methyle of the radical acetyle may be replaced by 

 other carburetted hydrogens of analogous constitution. We 

 should have, in fact, acetic acids of composition like the following, 



h2 °-(c 2 hO ° 2 ' ° 3 ' andh2 °- (c 5 ^ 1 ) ° 2 ' ° 3 : among others ' 



we should have a propionic acid with one atom of amyle in the 

 place of one atom of sethyle, namely, 



h 2 . (% J)*/) C 2 ,0 3 = C^ h 18 O 4 . 



The method of obtaining such an acid, supposing it to exist, 

 would be a modification of the process already referred to, dis- 

 covered by Kolbe and Frankland, in which propionic and ca- 

 proic acids are obtained from the cyanides of sethyle and amyle 

 by the action of potash ; when, for instance, a mixture of cya- 

 nides of aethyle and amyle in equivalent proportions dissolved in 

 alcohol is digested continuously with an alcoholic solution of 

 potash, a transformation should ensue such as indicated by the 

 following equations, wherein I assume Williamson's view of the 

 cyanides of sethyle and amyle containing equal atoms of cyanogen 

 and sethyle (or amyle) to be correct : — 



