278 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



OD it iu the cold, but dissolves it when warm ; there is, however, no 

 marked change of color iu which respect this substance shows a strik- 

 ing difference from the bronitrinitrophenylmalouic ester, but resembles 

 the bromdinitrophenylmalonic ester. 



The bromdinitrophenylacetacetic ester shows marked acid proper- 

 ties, as was to be expected from the position of one of its hydrogen 

 atoms upon a carbon adjacent to an acetyl, a carboxylester, and a 

 phenyl group, the latter rendered still more efficient by the presence 

 of two nitro groups, and also from the acid properties of the corre- 

 sponding malonic compound. Aqueous sodic, or ammonic hydrate dis- 

 solves it forming a red solution of the corresponding salt ; an aqueous 

 solution of potassic carbonate acts upon it in the same way giving, 

 however, a somewhat fainter color, but, if alcohol is added to the 

 solution, it turns at once dark red; acid sodic carbonate in aqueous 

 solution gives a very faint red color which is much intensified by 

 addition of alcohol to the solution. The red solution of the ester in 

 ammonic hydrate is decomposed by heating, or even by exposure to 

 the air at ordinary temperatures, and we were not able to obtain a 

 solution, which did not smell of ammonia, even when a large excess 

 of the ester was used, it is evident therefore that its ammonium salt 

 is very unstable. We have, however, tried the action of a solution 

 prepared from an excess of the ester and ammonic hydrate with vari- 

 ous reagents, and found the following characteristic reactions. 



Magnesium or Calcium salt^ heavy flocculent precipitate of the 

 color of chrome yellow. 



Strontium salt, a less heavy precipitate of a redder color. 



Barium salt, a still smaller precipitate, also reddish. 



Zinc salt, a pale yellow precipitate. 



Cupric salt, a pale yellow precipitate. 



Lead salt, a dark yellow precipitate. 



Silver salt, a yellowish white precipitate. 



The most striking thing about these salts is that the calcium salt is 

 less soluble than that of strontium, and this less soluble than the 

 barium salt. Bischoff * has observed a similar peculiarity in the salts 

 of orthonitrobenzoylmalonic ester, and we have found it in the salts 

 of bromtrinitrophenylmalonic ester. 



"With aniline the bromdinitrophenylacetacetic ester gave only a 

 waxy yellow mass, from which there seemed little chance of obtaining 

 a substance in a state fit for analysis. We have, therefore, abandoned 



* Ann. Chem., ccli. 362. 



