2 ART. 2. E. DIVERS AND T. IIAGA. 



by Fremy himself. The recognition of the constitution of the 

 nitrilosulphates by Fremy was a moral impossibility, lor their 



discovery had come, so to say, much before its time. 



Name. — The reason for the substitution of the name nitrilosul- 

 phates for that of nitrilosulphonates, chosen for these substances 

 by Berglund, has been stated on a former occasion (this Journal, 

 1896, g, 220). As nitriles they are sulphates — nitrilosulphates 

 therefore. Suitable alternative names are aminetrisulphonates and 

 trisulphamates. 



Preparation. — Ammonium nitrilosulphate, 4NH : ,, 3S0 3 , can- 

 not be obtained by the union of ammonia with sulphur trioxide, 

 for that results in the production of the imidosulphates, which are 

 not resolvable by heat into nitrilosulphate and ammonia, since the 

 less ammoniated 2 /;r norm al sai t> instead of breaking up in this way- 

 boils freely at about 355°, under reduced pressure, with very little 

 decomposition and no production of nitrilosulphate (this Journal, 

 1894, 6, 55). Nitrilosulphates are only to be prepared by sul- 

 phonation of hydroximidosulphates. Fremy made known two ways 

 in which this can be accomplished, of which however only one 

 admits of general application. This is to treat the hydroximido- 

 sulphate with sulphur dioxide in presence of a base, a process which 

 resolves itself in practice into treating the corresponding nitrite 

 in this way, since the hydroximidosulphate has itself to be prepared 

 by a similar sulphonation of the nitrite. The other way of pre- 

 paring nitrilosulphates by sulphonation is to add a nitrite to an 

 excess of solution of a pyrosulphite, when in the case of the potas- 

 sium salt, the nearly insoluble nitrilosulphate soon separates. 

 Other nitrilosulphates, being more soluble, can hardly be obtained 

 directly in this way, but, as Fremy has shown, a solution of the 

 ammonium salt thus prepared, very impure though it will be, can 



