Organic Bodies containing Metals, 251 



as an incrustation at the front end of the combustion-tube, 

 about a couple of inches of which had been left empty for this 

 purpose, and projected from the furnace, the heat being so regu- 

 lated that none of the iodide passed into the chloride of calcium 

 tube, whilst none of the watery vapour condensed in the com- 

 bustion-tube. When the analysis was concluded, the weight of 

 the protoiodide of mercury, mixed with traces of periodide and 

 metallic mercury, was determined by cutting off the part of the 

 combustion-tube containing it, and ascertaining its weight before 

 and after the iodide was removed. The nunibers obtained agree 

 very closely with the formula C^ H^ Hgl, which requires the 

 following values : — 



Calculated. Found. 



341-84 100-00 100-52 



This compound is therefore evidently the iodide of a new 

 organo-metallic body, consisting of one atom of methyle and 

 one atom of mercury, and for which I propose the name hydrar- 

 gyromethylium : it is formed by the direct union of one atom of 

 mercury with one atom of iodide of methyle, under the influence 

 of light. 



Iodide of hydrargyromethylium is a white solid, crystallizing 

 in minute nacreous scales, which are insoluble in water, mode- 

 rately soluble in alcohol, and very soluble in sether and iodide of 

 methyle ; by the spontaneous evaporation of these solutions the 

 crystals are again deposited unchanged. Iodide of hydrargyro- 

 methylium is slightly volatile at ordinary temperatures, and 

 exhales a weak but peculiarly unpleasant odour, which leaves 

 a nauseous taste upon the palate for several days; at 100° C. 

 the volatility is much greater, and the crystals are rapidly dissi- 

 pated at this temperature when exposed to a current of air. At 

 143° C. it fuses and sublimes without decomposition, condensing 

 in brilliant and extremely thin crystalline plates. In contact 

 with the fixed alkalies and ammonia, it is converted into oxide 

 of hydrargyromethylium, which is dissolved by excess of all these 

 reagents; from these solutions sulphide of ammonium throws 

 down sulphide of hydrargyromethylium as a slightly yellow floc- 

 culent precipitate of a pecuhar and most insupportable odour. 



S2 



