
AND SOME OF ITS DERIVATIVES. 413 
A substance of such constitution may be easily imagined to occur, when an insuf- 
ficient quantity of acid gas had been employed to remove all the water from the 
meconic acid, or its power had been diminished in this respect by the ready formed 
water existing in the fluids. 
That the substance is something more than an accidental mixture, is to be 
inferred from the action of ammonia. When its warm aqueous solution is super- 
saturated by strong ammonia, the fluid becomes yellow, but none of the yellow 
amidic salt is deposited, as might be expected in a mixture containing ethylo- 
meconic acid. If, however, to a concentrated aqueous ammoniacal solution strong 
alcohol be added, a deposit in small radiated yellow silky tufts appears; and 
when such an aqueous solution is evaporated to dryness at 212°, a crystalline 
residue remains, part of which is extremely sparingly soluble in boiling water ; 
the more soluble portion gives, with hydrochloric acid, a crystalline precipitate 
in the form of needles. I have not followed out the changes which these few 
experiments seem to indicate, for my material was small in quantity, and I had 
no means of readily preparing it tolerably pure at will. 
I have called this substance Meconoethylomeconic Acid, as the name expresses 
most distinctly the constitution deduced from analysis, and represented by the 
formula given. I was anxious to have substantiated its constitution as such by 
a determination of its saturating capacity, but was unable to effect my purpose, 
owing to the impossibility I experienced of obtaining its salts. When it is treated 
with bases, the salts produced decompose into meconates with greater facility 
than those of ethylomeconic acid. 
Meconic Ether containing two Equivalents of Ether. 
Biethylomeconic Acid—This substance is found in considerable quantity in 
the acid mother liquors from which the bodies before described haye deposited, 
especially when absolute alcohol has been employed; its proportionate amount 
appearing to depend on that of the hydrochloric acid gas employed. It remains, 
on evaporation of the liquid, till acid ceases to be evolved at 212° Fahr., as a thick 
oil or viscid mass, becoming a solid crystalline mass on cooling. It may be ren- 
‘dered pure by two or three crystallisations, these serving to remove any of the 
former-mentioned bodies, of which small quantities are generally present in the 
residue left on evaporation. It is thus obtained in colourless flattened prisms : 
the analysis is as follows :— 
4-745 grains, dried in vacuo, gave 
I. { 8-932 ... carbonic acid, and 
2:055 ... water. 
4-865 grains, dried in vacuo, gave 
II. {9-160 ... carbonic acid, and 
{389 ... water. 
VOL. XX. PART III. 57 
