OP AETS AND SCIENCES. 



13 



we admit that the formiihis are accurate, we may write them, in accord- 

 ance with the theoretic views which I have adopted, as follows : * — 



Co, 



NH3-CI 

 NH3— CI 



NH„-N03 

 NH3-NO3 



.Mi3-NH3 Q ^ 1 NH3-NH3 Q ^ 



NH3-NH,, 

 NH3-CI 



NH,-C1 



NH„— Ntl3 

 NH'-N03 



nhI-no, 



NH3^ ^^* 



NH3-NH3 Q 



NH, 



[nh; 



>so, 



J(5rgensen f suggests that these salts may contain hydroxyl in place 

 of oxygen. There is at present no method of deciding the Question, 

 and I have adopted the view which seems to me the most probable. 

 Kiinzel's hyposulphate above mentioned may be regarded as belonging 

 to this series, and as having the structural formula : — 



^^^^nh;-nh3>o 



NH3-^ o^Ug 



but, according to Geuther, the formula given by Kiinzel must be 

 tripled, and the salt then belongs to the dodecamin or luteocobalt 

 series. In the absence of direct proof of the existence of luteocobalt 

 in this salt, Kiinzel's formula appears the more probable of the two. 

 The compounds above mentioned, with those which I have myself 

 described, form the only known members of the octamin group, a 

 further study of which will doubtless yield an ample return. 



6. Action of Ammonic Nitrite on Salts of Gohalt. — To obtain a clear 

 view of the nature and mode of formation of the salts of xauthocobalt, 

 I have carefully studied the relations of ammonic nitrite to salts of 

 cobalt under different conditions. This subject has already been 

 examined by Erdmann,| and in my laboratory by Sadtler. § Erdmann 

 found that when a neutral solution of cobaltic chloride is mixed with a 

 neutral solution of ammonic nitrite no tui'bidity ensues ; but after 

 spontaneous evaporation in the air a salt crystallizes, with the formula, 

 as Erdmann writes it (old style): — 



Co.O^NHg, 3NO2 + NH,0, NO2. 



* Blomstrand has given the same formulas with trifling variations. Chemie 

 der Jetztzeit, p. 355. 

 t Gmeiin-Krauts' Handbuch, vol. iii. p. 468. 

 t Journal fiir prakt. Chemie, xcvii. 385. 

 § Am. Journal of Science and Arts [2], ix. 189. 



