100 Hoyal Irish Academy » 



suing year : — President, Rev. Bartholomew Lloyd, D.D * ; Trea- 

 surer, Tliomas Herbert Orpen, M.D. ; Secretary, Rev. Joseph Hen- 

 derson Singer, D.D. j Secretary to Council, Rev. Richard Mac 

 Donnell, D.D. ; Secretary of Foreign Correspondence, Sir William 

 Betham ; Librarian^ Rev. William Hamilton Drummond, D.D. 



Committee of Science. — Rev. Franc Sadleir, D.D., Rev. Richard 

 Mac Donnell, D.D., Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Rev. Humphrey 

 Lloyd, James Apjohn, M.D., James Mac CuUagh, Esq., Captain 

 Portlock, R.E. 



Committee of Polite Li^em^wre.— The Archbishop of Dublin, Rev. 

 Joseph Henderson Singer, D.D., Andrew Carmichael, Esq., Samuel 

 Litton M.D., Rev. William Hamilton Drummond, D.D., Rev. Charles 

 Richard Elrington, D.D., William West, M.D. 



Committee of Antiquities. — Rev. James Henthorn Todd, Thomas 

 Herbert Orpen, M.D., Hugh Ferguson, M.D., Sir William Betham, 

 George Petrie, Esq., Rev. Caesar Otway, Dean of St. Patrick's. 



Professor Kane read a paper, entitled *' Researches on the Com- 

 binations derived from Pyroacetic Spirit." 



In order to understand the relation between the following bodies 

 and pyroacetic spirit, the atomic weight of the latter must be consi- 

 dered as representing four volumes of vapour, and its formula written 

 C(5 Hg Oy. It has been found to give a series generally analogous to 

 that of ordinary alcohol, and Professor Kane proposes for it the name 

 Mesitic Alcohol. 



By means of sulphuric acid there is obtained a colourless fluid, of 

 an alliaceous odour, boiling at 276. F. and having the composition 

 Cg H4, to which is given the name Mesitylene. 



By acting on mesitic alcohol with perchloride of phosphorus there 

 is gQnQr?i\.^ phospo-mesitylic acid, and a compound fluid heavier than 

 water, which has the formula Cg H5 C/j and, by the decomposition 

 of the latter by means of potash, a body Cg H^ O. These may be 

 considered either as containing Mesitylene, or a hypothetic radical 

 Mesityl, thus : 



CgH4 + HO.Hydrate of Me- 

 sitylene. 



CgH^ + O. Oxide of Mesityl. 

 Cg H3 + CI. Chloride of Mesityl. 



Cg H4 + H CI. Muriate of Mesi- 

 tylene. 



By the action of phosphorus and iodine on mesitic alcohol, there 

 is produced an iodide of mesityl, having the formula Cg H^ I. 



Oxide of Mesityl unites with sulphuric acid in two proportions, 

 forming the sulphate and the bisulphate of mesityl ; both of these 

 are acid, and unite with bases forming well characterized salts. 



The salts of the former are called sulphomesitylates, and of the 

 latter persulphomesitylates ; and a very anomalous character in these 

 salts is, that the quantity of the inorganic base is such as could neu- 

 tralize the whole of the sulphuric acid which they contain. Thus the 

 sulpho-mesitylate of lime has the formula 



♦ Dr. Lloyd having since deceased. Sir W. Rowan Hamilton has been 

 elected President in his place. 



