40 E- DIVERS AND T. HAGA. 



happens to be a factor of no account in the present case, f(^r the per- 

 centage of sulphur is nearly the same in the neutral and the basic 

 sulphazotate (or its isomer), namely, 20*1)7 and 21'.53, and Kaschig's 

 preparation could not from the circumstances claim any high degree 

 of purity. There is, however, a wide degree of difference between the 

 percentage of potassium in the neutral and thnt in the basic salt, and 

 that got by Raschig agrees well with that for the l:)asic sulphazotate 

 with its one molecule of water of crvstallisation. But here liaschiof 

 himself comes, as it were, to our assistance, and this emboldens us to 

 ask for some distrust of his potassium number, f^r he actually 

 discusses (though only to reject on experiment!) I grounds) the pos- 

 sibility of his salt being Fremy's sulphazate, wliich does not differ • so 

 very much ' from it, he says, in the Mmount of snl])]mr, — although 

 that difference is really S'/. i)er cent. Now, let such a l(3wering as this 

 be made in the potassium percentage and the sulphur be allowed to 

 stand, and we should have a sul])hazotate mixture or compound 

 resolving itself, as Raschig's preparation did when dissolved in water, 

 into the two salts. In concluding this criticism we may add that 

 Raschig ends by affixing a note of interrogation to the formula of his 

 salt. 



Berenian of oximidosnlplwnates to nitrite and sulphite. 



Sodium or potassium oximidosulphonate digested in the cold for 

 some hours with highly concentrated solution of sodium or potassium 

 hydroxide, or boiled with it for a few minutes, is largely converted into 

 nitrite and sulphite. Some of the latter salt crystallises out, and the 

 solution evolves sulphur dioxide ;md oxides of nitrogen when acidified, 

 or when neutralised and mixed with barium chloride gives a pre- 

 cipitate of barium sulphite, leaving nitrite in plenty in solution, easy 

 then to detect. The following equation ex[)resses this change : — 



