180 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



hot ; very freely soluble in acetone ; freely in glacial acetic acid or 

 benzol ; soluble in chloroform ; slightly soluble in ether, less so in 

 carbonic disulphide ; and essentially insoluble in ligroine. The best 

 solvent for it is boiling alcohol. The white needles, if recrystallized 

 from chloroform or glacial acetic acid, give crystals of the lemon-yel- 

 low variety (that is free from alcohol). Strong sulphuric acid in the 

 cold has little if any action on it, when hot it dissolves a small quan- 

 tity forming a yellow solution ; strong nitric acid does not dissolve it in 

 the cold, but when hot dissolves it, forming a very pale yellowish solu- 

 tion ; strong hydrochloric acid has no action on it, either cold or hot. 



The dinitroresorcine dimethylether was also made from the substance 

 melting at 237°-238° (impure bromdinitroresorcine dimethylether) 

 by heating it to boiling with sodic methylate in methyl alcohol solu- 

 tion for one hour in a flask with a return condenser, at the end of 

 which time the formation of dinitroresorcine dimethylether was proved 

 by the melting point, 167°, and the characteristic form of the crystals. 

 This experiment shows that the action with the methyl compounds is 

 similar to that with the ethyl compounds already described, but it 

 takes place less easily, since in the ethyl series heating for ten minutes 

 was sufficient to complete the action, whereas with the methylate boil- 

 ing for an hour was necessary. This formation of dinitroresorcine 

 dimethylether furnishes us with another and most convincing proof 

 that the substance melting at 237°-238° is essentially bromdinitroresor- 

 cine dimethylether, confirming our work with the anilido compound. 



Some experiments on the action of sodic isoamylate upon tribrom- 

 dinitrobenzol gave under the conditions used with the ethylate and 

 methylate only a viscous liquid, which did not solidify even after 

 standing for two months, and as it did not distil with steam we decided 

 that its purification would take more time than our interest in this 

 subject would warrant, and accordingly abandoned this branch of the 

 research. 



Action oj Sodic Phenolate on Tribromdinitrohenzol. 



To study this action, 30 gr. of tribromdinitrohenzol dissolved in a 

 mixture of alcohol and benzol were mixed with an alcoholic solution 

 of 20.8 gr. of phenol previously converted into the sodium salt by the 

 addition of a concentrated aqueous solution of 8.8 gr. of sodic hydrate, 

 and allowed to stand at ordinary temperatures over night. The 

 amount of phenol used corresponds to three molecules for every mole- 

 cule of the tribromdinitrohenzol. The solution turned light yellow, 



