104 E - DIVERS AND T. HAGA. 



potassium hydroxide, and nitrous oxide, thus: — 



(KON 2 )KS0 4 +EtOH=EtKS0 4 +KOH+N 2 0. 



Potassium hydroxide and nitrous oxide are what potassium 

 hyponitrite becomes, when left dissolved in water, aud may here be 

 taken to have been derived in that way, although, as a matter of fact, 

 we have foiled to detect any hyponitrite in the solution at any period 

 in the decomposition of the nitrososulphate. For this failure presents 

 no difficulty, since potassium hyponitrite in solution decomposes quite 

 as quickly as it can here be produced. We may, therefore, express the 

 interaction of alcohol and nitrososulphate by the equation — 



(KON 2 )KS0 4 +EtOH = EtKS0 4 + KON 2 OH 

 — KON 2 OH being the acid hyponitrite, existence of which in solution 

 was established by Zorn. 



Whether hyponitrite or only alkali and nitrous oxide are the 

 other products, the fact that potassium ethyl sulphate is formed 

 removes all doubt as to nitrososulphates being true sulphates. Were 

 they of sulphonic constitution, they could only yield ethyl sulphate 

 along with hydroxy lamine, hydrazine,* or ammonia, or a derivative 

 of one of these, and then by a most improbable reaction. No such 

 substances are found as products of the decomposition. 



Nitrososulphates having thus been ascertained to be true sulphates, 

 the relations of the elements of the nitric-oxide radical can be only 

 those shown by "the formula, MON:NOS0 2 -OM. For there is nothing 

 in the gentle act of union of the nitric oxide with the sulphite sug- 

 gesting any new distribution of its elements, such as that of the 

 oxygen of one mol. of the nitric oxide leaving it to go over to the 

 nitrogen of the other; nothing in the properties of the nitrososulphates 



* Duden has recently found that potassium nitrososulphate yields some hydrazine with 

 sodium-amalgam (Berichte, 27, 3 198). It, therefore, seems probable to us that what has been 

 taken by Maumené, ourselves, and others, to be hydroxylamine among the products of the 

 action of sodium upon nitrites, is, after all, not that substance but hydrazine. 



