Organic Bodies containing Metals, 247 



Analysis No. I. proves the absence of all the members of the 

 olefiant gas family, and also that the mixture consists of — 



Gas absorbable by alcohol . . . 48*04 

 Gas unabsorbable by alcohol . . 51*96 



10000 

 The behaviour of the iodides of sethyle and amyle in contact 

 with zinc*, led me to expect that the gaseous products of the 

 decomposition of iodide of methyle by the same metal would 

 consist of methyle, hydride of methyle, and the first member of 

 the olefiant gas series, methylene ; but in addition to the proof 

 of the absence of this latter body afibrded by the absence of all 

 absorption by fuming sulphuric acid, analyses Nos. II. and III. 

 demonstrate the impossibility of methylene being a constituent 

 of the gaseous mixture ; for on constructing three equations in 

 which the volumes of methyle, hydride of methyle, and methy- 

 lene are expressed, the value obtained for the last gas is invari- 

 ably a small negative quantity. The volumes of methyle and 

 hydride of methyle are readily found by the two following equa- 

 tions, in which the volume of combustible gas is represented by 

 A, the contraction produced by explosion with excess of oxygen 

 by B, and the volumes of methyle and hydride of methyle 

 respectively, by x and y, the contraction produced by the explo- 

 sion of methyle with excess of oxygen being 2*5 times its own 

 volume, and that produced by the explosion of hydride of methyle 

 twice its own volume : — 



37+ y = A, 



|^ + 2y=B. 



The values of a? and y may therefore be thus expressed : — 



a7=2B--4A, 



2/=5A-2B. 



According to analysis No. II., 10*88 vols, of combustible gas 

 produced a contraction, on explosion with oxygen, equal to 24*49 

 vols.; and in analysis No. III., 11*23 vols, of combustible gas 

 produced a contraction, on explosion, equal to 25*28 vols. Hence, 

 by the application of the foregoing equations, the per-centage 

 composition of the gaseous mixture may be expressed as follows :-r- 



II. III. Mean. 



Methyle . . . 50*18 50*22 50*20 



Hydride of methyle 49*82 49*78 49*80 



100*00 100*00 100*00 



* Journal of the Chemical Society, vol. ii. p. 265, and vol. iii. p. 30. 



