CONSTITUTION OF GLTCOCOLL AND ITS DERIVATIVES. 95 



the contrary, very sliglit solubility of this compound, in cold alcohol 

 and ether, its feeble acid character, and its almost neutral taste rather 

 o-o to support this view of its constitution. That it does possess an 

 acid character, feeble as it is, is easily accounted for by the presence of 

 the benzoyl group, which imparts to the amiclic hydrogen the pro- 

 perty of being more easily replaced by metals generally than in the 

 case of glvcocoll ; and it is scarcely necessary to mention that there 

 are many well known non-carboxylic compounds, uric acid for ex- 

 ample, which possess acid characters. Again, the fact that all at- 

 tempts hitherto made to obtain what may be called hippuryl chloride, 

 COCl.CHo.XH.COC6?l5, have been attended with failure, goes towards 

 upsetting the accepted view that it is a carboxylic compound, an 

 argument which, indeed, may be used for denying carboxylic con- 

 stitution to all tlie so-called amido-acids. In one word, the name 

 benzoyl-glycocoU, alreadv in common use. expresses its constitution 

 perfectly — 



HoC-XH..CüCeH5 



"I I 

 OC-0 



Passino", now, from the modes of formation (^f o'lvcocoU and its 

 derivatives, let us consider some of its transformations and discuss the 

 constitution of the compounds thereby produced. 



A. Addition compounds. That, although glycocoll and its deriva- 

 tives must be regarded as closed bodies, its addition compounds should 

 possess an open constitution is easy to admit, remembering that a 

 nitrogen atom is not yet known to be capable of combining with more 

 than five monovalent radicals. The ordinary or hydrated betaïn, 

 COOH.CHo. K(CH3)3.0H, and the corresponding chloride, COOH. 

 CH2.N(CH3)3.C1, are bodies of this kind. Their formation presents, 

 therefore, no difficulties with the closed formula for glycocoll. 



