404 MR HENRY HOW ON MECONIC ACID, 


4-708 grains, dried at 212°, gave 
6659 ... carbonic acid, and 
1505 ... water. 
4-052 grains, dried at 212°, gave, by H Cl, &c., 
1780... platinum. 
Calculation. 
Carbon, . j 38°57 38°70 Ci 84 
Hydrogen, 5 3°55 3°22 i 7 
Oxygen, . : 586 51:63 Oe 
Nitrogen, ; 6-21 6-45 N 14 
100-00 100-00 217 
which gives as the formula of the monobasic meconate of ammonia, as dried at 
212", 
2 HO, NH,O, C,, HO,, 
The crystallised salt contains two equivalents of water ; 
Niece grains lost, at 212°, 
. 0°735 ... water. 
which is equal to 7°70 per cent. ; 7°65 is the number corresponding to the for- 
mula 
2 HO, NH,O, C,, HO,, +2 aq. 
The original mother liquor of this salt»deposited a further quantity of the same 
on being concentrated ; and by continued evaporation a few crystals of a different 
appearance were obtained ; when these were separated, and recrystallised from 
boiling water, they presented themselves in the form of long square prismatic 
‘needles. In their appearance, and a few reactions, they shewed the characters 
of chlorocomenic acid. A determination of the chlorine is, I think, sufficient to 
prove that the crystals really consist of this acid. 
{ 3°315 grains, dried at 212° gave, after burning with lime, 
| 2-505 ... chloride of silver ; 
the per-centage of chlorine calculated from this experiment is 18°69, which agrees 
very closely with 18°63, the number corresponding to the formula of chloroco- 
menic acid in the dry state. 
2 HO, Cy {a } 0, 
Oxalic acid is found in the last mother liquors of this process. 
Action of Bromine on Meconic Acid. 
Bromocomenic Acid ; Carbonic Acid.—I had no doubt of finding the action of 
bromine closely similar to that of chlorine on meconate of ammonia; but it 
occurred to me it would be more readily learned from employing the acid itself, 
whether it gave a substitution product, or whether its molecule, under these cir- 
cumstances, split up at once into carbonic acid and a substitution acid of comenic 


