HYDROXYAMIDOSULPHATES BY COPPER SULPHATE. 501 



equals that as amidosulpliate, whereas, with nitrogen as a pro- 

 duet, tlie sulphur as sulphate is double that as amidosulphate in 

 (o), whilst in (4) there is none as amidosulphate. Now, in the 

 observed decompositions of hydroxyamidosulphate the sulphur as 

 sulphate has been found equal, on the average, to that as 

 amidosulphate, a result showing that within the limits of accu- 

 racy of the somewhat complex analytical work, no nitrogen is 

 generated. 



Although, when using copper sulphate or copper hydroxy- 

 amidosulphate, no change to cuprous salt is observable, the 

 reduction of cupric chloride to cuprous chloride points clearly 

 to the activity of the copper salt as a ' carrier of oxygen ' from 

 one molecule of the hydroxyamidosulphate to another. 



Results and Method of the Quantitative Experiments. 



The results of the experiments are given, not in the order 

 in which they were obtained but in that of the growth in 

 quantity of the sulphur dioxide produced. 



In an experiment in which copper hydroxyamidosulphate 

 was heated very slowly, so as to carry out the decomposition at 

 as low a temperature as possible (boiling the solution only at the 

 end in order to expel the last portions of sulphur dioxide), re- 

 sults were obtained which agree sufficiently well with those 

 calculated on the assumption that 3.7 per cent, of the salt gives 

 all its sulphur as dioxide, its hydrogen as water, and its nitrogen 

 as nitrous oxide, whilst the rest of the salt decomposes accord- 

 ing to equation (1) : 



