408 RECORD OP SCIENCE FOR 1886. 



of organic bodies. In stearone no less tban thirty live carbon atoms 

 unite to form a chain, which may be indicated thus : 



B, /-HzA O rB^\ H3 



A limit to the extent of opeu-cbaiu structure can not be predicted, 

 but the case is very different when closed chains are considered. 

 Wliile closed chains of three, four, five, and six links or atoms are 

 numerous, the problem of forming rings having a greater number of 

 links has been scarcely attacked by chemists. If bodies like anthracene 

 and acridine, having double rings of the benzene type, be excepted, only 

 two substances are known having seven links in the molecular ring. 

 These are : 



H2 H2 H2 c — c — o — c 



c-c-c^ I / 



I I I CO and 0— N— N 



c c c^ 



H2 H2 H2 Carbazostyril. 



Suberone. 



The author has begun the study of the construction of rings having 

 a number of links greater than six, and some of the results are as fol- 

 lows: 



Sodium sulphide acts on iodide of methylene in accordance with the 

 equation : 



CH2l2+Na2S=2NaI+CH2S 



But A. W. Hofmann has shown that the molecular weight of CH2S is 

 three times as great as thus indicated, and Meyer formulates this as 

 follows : CaHeSs or 



H2 

 C 



/ \ 



s s 



I I 



H2C CH2 



\ / 



s 



By a study of the body formed in the reaction 



C2H4Br.,+Na2S=2NaBr+C2H4S 

 the author arrives at the conclusion it should be formulated thus: 



Hz H2 



S — C — C — s 



1^ I 



H2C CH2 



I I 



H2O S ^— — CHa 



