128 REPORT — 1851. 



body which retains its acid properties, when united to another which does 

 not neutralize it. Oxamide, however, and many other so-called ammonia 

 compounds are not alkalies, although all alkalies derived from the vegetable 

 kingdom appear to be obtained through the medium of ammonia. 



The recent researches, however, of Wiirtz and Hofmann bid fair to rid us 

 of these three classes of bodies. They have shown, for instance, that many 

 compounds termed amides are nothing more than replacements of one of the 

 hydrogen atoms present in ammonia by various hydrocarbons, and that 

 imides and nitriles are often formed by the substitution, the first of two, the 

 latter of three atoms, of an organic base for the hydrogen of the ammonia. 



That the vegetable alkalies, indeed, using the term in its stricter and more 

 ordinary sense, are thus formed, seems now in a manner demonstrated ; but 

 before we allow ourselves to substitute the term alkali for the three classes 

 under consideration, it must be shown on the one hand that all organic 

 bodies possessing alkaline properties are formed in this manner, and on the 

 other, that all amides, imides, and nitriles possess alkaline properties. 



The existence of acid-amides would not in itself militate against this 

 view, as the chemical relations maj' in them be determined by the acid pre- 

 sent, but whether other exceptions may not occur in the way of such a ge- 

 neralization must be left for further inquiries to decide. At any rate it 

 deserves to be considered, whether the bodies of the class known as Ureas, a 

 term which has been extended from the animal excretion so designated to 

 other bodies possessed of an analogous composition to it, and therefore to 

 bodies isomeric with the alkaline cyanates, are to be ranked under this same 

 head. 



Their analogy of constitution to that of the vegetable alkalies may be seen 

 by comparing the composition of normal urea, as well as of aniline urea, with 

 that of the bodies we have been considering. 



Urea is often represented as C^NO, HO + NH^; and aniline-urea is shown 

 by Hofmann to have the composition of C'^ NO H0 + C- H'N, or of cyanate 

 of aniline. 



But the former may be regarded as composed of two atoms of ammonia 

 conjoined, in each of which one atom of hydrogen is replaced by CO, forming 

 as it were a double carbamide, viz. — 

 NH 



H 

 CO 

 NH 



H i 



= N2H*Ci02; 



=N2 H» C* O'. 



CO J 

 and in like manner aniline-urea as — 

 NH 

 H 



C>«H* 

 NH 

 C 0' 

 CO' 



But I do not see how the bodies newly discovered by Wiirtz, consisting 

 respectively of — 



Cyanurate of methvl ...... C^ N^ O^ -f-SC^ H' O 



„ ethyl'. C« N3 03 + 3C+ H5 O 



Cyanate of ethyl C^ N O -t-C* H^ O 



„ methyl C^NO-t-CaH'O 



