NEF. NITROPARAPFINE SALTS. 149 



conception has been shown to be illogical,* and th«j work that 1 have 

 carried out during the last six years has proved, by incontrovertible 

 experimental evidence, the erroueousness of this hypothesis in all 

 cases where it has been applied. 



The only instances of organic compounds now known which con- 

 tain a metal bound directly to carbon are the metallic carbides, the 

 metallic alkyles, and the metallic derivatives of the true acetylene 

 compounds. No one would however be willing to assert that these 

 substances are salts of acids. Acetylene, for example, is not an acid, 

 for it is not absorbed with salt formation by even concentrated caustic 

 alkalies. The peculiar formation of the metallic acetylene deriva- 

 tives, e. g. of acetylene silver or copper, depends, in all probability, 

 upon an addition of metaUic hydroxide to the triple bond present in 

 acetylene, and the subsequent splitting off of water. 



As regards the constitution of the free nitroparaffines, the presence 

 of a true nitro group in these compounds can hardly be seriously ques- 

 tioned, especially in view of the experiments of Victor Meyer t and 

 the late syntheses carried out by Be wad. J 



The formuli^ suggested for nitroethane by Geuther,§ Kissel, || 

 Alexejeff,1[ and Thomsen,** owe their existence chiefly to the very 

 noteworthy decomposition of nitroethane into acetic acid and hydrox- 

 ylamine, when treated with concentrated hydrochloric acid. ft 



This decomposition of nitroethane can now, because of the above 

 experiments, be easily explained. An addition of hydrochloric arid 

 to the nitro group, analogous to the addition of sodic hydrate or sodium 

 ethylate, first takes place, forming 



CI 

 CHs-CHo-Nq^, 

 CI 

 which then loses hydrochloric acid 



CH3C = Nqjj 5 



* These Proceedings, XXVII. 157. 

 t Ann. Cliem. (Liebig), CLXXI., etc. 

 i Journ f prakt. Cliemie, [2.], XLVIII. 346. 

 § Ann. Chem. (Liebig), CCXLIII. 105. 

 II Journ. russ. chem. Soc, XIV. 40. 

 H Ber. d. chem. Ges., XIX. Ref. 874. 

 ** Journ. f. prakt. Chemie, [2.], XLVIH. 348. 

 tt V. xMeyer and Locher, Ann. Chem. (Liebig), CLXXX. 163. 



