316 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



rine should pass very slowly, at the rate of about three or four litres 

 in twenty-four hours. All the gas however is not absorbed by the 

 nitrate of silver. Oxygen is evolved, the volume of which appears 

 to be equal to that of the chlorine employed. An apparatus thus 

 constructed operates day and night without watching, care being 

 however taken to renew the sulphuric acid which displaces the chlo- 

 rine, the spirit of the lamp, and the ingredients of the freezing mix- 

 ture. 



. The author states that he shall forward hereafter a more complete 

 memoir, in which he will describe the chemical properties of the 

 anhydrous nitric acid, and detail the results of his researches on the 

 action of chlorine and hypochlorous acid on the salts of silver. — 

 L'Institut, Fevrier 21, 1849. 



ON A SERIES OF ORGANIC ALKALIES HOMOLOGOUS WITH 

 AMMONIA. BY A. WURTZ. 



The history of the ammoniacal compounds, so complete and so 

 important in a theoretical point of view, forms in some measure a 

 transition between inorganic and organic chemistry. Ammonia 

 should decidedly be regarded as the most simple and the most power- 

 ful of the organic bases ; and it would be for all chemists the type 

 of that numerous class of bodies, did it not differ in one undoubtedly 

 important character, but to which an exaggerated value has been 

 attributed. Ammonia contains no carbon. This difference how- 

 ever of coHjposition does not suffice, in my opinion, to separate 

 ammonia from the organic bases ; I have succeeded, in fact, in con- 

 verting this alkali into a true organic compound, by adding to it the 

 elements of the hydrocarbon C^ H- or C* H*, without depriving it 

 of its characters of a powerful base, or of its most striking properties, 

 for instance its odour. By adding to the elements of ammonia, NH^, 

 the elements of 1 equiv. of methylene, OH^ the compound C^H^N, 

 which may be called methylic ammonia, is obtained. By adding 

 to ammonia the elements of ethylene, C"*!!^, ethylic ammonia, 

 C* H7 N, is obtained. 



The compounds C^ H* N and C* H^ N may be viewed as methylid 

 sether, C^ H' O, and ordinary aether, C^* H^ O, in which the equiva- 

 lent of oxygen is replaced by 1 equiv. of amidogen, NH'^; or as 

 ammonia in which 1 equiv. hydrogen is replaced by methylium, 

 C^ H3, or ethylium, C* H*. The following formulaB will exhibit the 

 relations which exist between these substances and ammonia : — 



H3 N, ammonia. NH^, H, hydramide. 



O^ H^ N, methylic ammonia. NH% C^ H^, methylamide. 

 C-* H7 N, ethylic ammonia. NHS C H*, ethylamide. 



I shall employ in preference the names methylamide and ethylamide 

 to designate these new bases. 



In the present communication I shall restrict myself merely to 

 communicating the circumstances under which these substances are 

 produced, and to communicating the results of some analyses which 



