05 OXYAMIDOSULPHOXATKS. 9]q 



on the supposition piade. Added to tliis was the fact of the réd u ciné" 

 action which the alkaline mixture exerted upon copper and silver, 

 and the proof seemed complete. 



Rasehig, in his recent paper, went further in the matter than 

 Claus and. with or without experimenting we cannot decide from hi* 

 words, concluded that an (unhealed) alkaline solution of oxyamido- 

 sulphonic acid is actually a solution of five hydroxyamine in the quan- 

 tity calculated from the amount of the acid taken, and therefore just 

 such a solution of hydroxyamine as is used and wanted for preparing 

 aldoximes and acetoximes. 



Now with the exception of nitrous oxide beinçf «riven off, and 

 that of reduction of copper and silver salts — an action to be treated 

 of in the following section of this paper, none of the observations of 

 these chemists have we been able to confirm. This decomposition 

 of oxyamidosulphonates by alkali is of another and still more in- 

 teresting character than (/laus and Rasehig conceived it to be- 

 That the oxyamidosulphonates are hydroxyamine derivatives, which 

 hydrolyse in acid solutions into hydroxyamine and sulphate, is in- 

 deed certain, as ascertained by Rasehig. But, nevertheless, in alkaline 

 solution they give neither sulphate nor hydroxyamine, nor the de- 

 composition-products of hydroxyamine. 



Oxyamidosulphonates decompose with potassium hydroxide, and 

 similar reagents, exclusively into sulphite and hyponitrite, and the 

 decomposition-products of a hyponitrite. Xo ammonia and, so far as 

 we could judge, no sulphate and no nitrogen — or if any only un- 

 important quantities of nitrogen and sulphate — are formed. The 

 difficulty of keeping a sulphite solution for days free from sulphate, 

 and of detecting small amounts of nitrogen in presence of nitrous 

 oxide are well-known facts sufficiently explaining any uncertainty in 



