26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



III. 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE CHEMICAL LABORATORY OF 



HARVARD COLLEGE. 



I.— ON THE ETHERS OF URIC ACID. 

 By H. B. Hill. 



{First Paper.) 

 Presented, June 14, 1876. 



Although the constitution of many of the derivatives of uric acid 

 may be said to be fairly established, the structure of uric acid itself 

 is still a matter of conjee-ture. The formulae given by Baeyer,* Kolbe,t 

 Streckert Erlenmeyer, § Mulder, || Hiifner, T[ Gibbs, ** Medicus, ft 

 Drechsel, tt and Mallet ; §§ differing, as they do, in points more or less 

 essential, show that the experimental data are as yet insufficient to estab- 

 lish its structure. In this connection the ethers of uric acid seem to 

 have attracted little attention. In 1864, Dryjiin |{|| prepared the diethyl 

 and triethyl ethers by the action of ethyl iodide upon diplumbic urate. 

 I have been unable to obtain the original paper, but from the summary 

 of it given in the Jahresbericht HH for that year, and in Gmelin's*** 

 hand-book, it would appear that he submitted them to no very ex- 

 tended examination. I have, therefore, undertaken the study of the 

 ethers of uric acid, with the hope that a careful study of the products 



* Ann. Chem. u. Pliarm., 127, 235. 



t Journ. fiir prakt. Chem. [2] 1. 134. Berichte, Deutsch. Chem. Gesellsch. 

 III. 183. 



J Zeitsehr. fUr Chem. 1868, 863. 



§ Zeitsehr. fur Chem. 1869, 176. Munchen. Acad. Ber. 2, 276. 



II Bericht. der Deutsch. Cliem. Gesellsch. VL 1237. 



t Journ. fur prakt. Chem. [2J 3, 23. 



** Amn. Journ. [2] 46, 289. 



tt Ann. Chem u. Pharm. 175, 243. 



tt Chem. Centralbl. 1875, 493. 



§§ Amn. Journ. Mch. 1876, 195. 



nil Russ. Zeitsehr. Pharm. ii. 3, 28, 49, 113, 121. 



IT Jahresbericht. 1864, 629. 



*** Gmelin, Suppl. ii. 1026. 



