OF ZINC AND ANTIMONY. 345 



On attempting to moderate the action by using a lower temperature regulated by a 

 bath of fusible metal, little or no change resulted. 



5th. A few grammes of very finely pulverized crystals of SbZug were covered in a 

 thick glass flask, with about twice their bulk of iodide of ethyle, and the hermetically 

 sealed vessel exposed to a temperature of about 150° C. in a Papins digester, for several 

 hours. On opening the flask when cold, it was found to contain a white crystalline 

 solid, which was readily purified by dissolving in alcohol and recrystallizing. There 

 separated from the alcoholic solution needle-shaped crystals, which were also soluble 

 in water. They were found to melt at about 140° C. to a yellowish fluid, and when 

 heated in the air to about 190° C, boiled, forming a dense white smoke, which con- 

 densed on the sides of the tube to a white amorphous powder. The smoke had a 

 strong and disagreeable alliaceous odor, probably due to stibethyle. The crystals have 

 also a slight alliaceous odor, and a bitter metallic taste. Their solution in water gives 

 with test-paper the reaction of the feeble acids. An analysis conducted in the usual 

 way gave the following results : — 



100.00 100.00 = 2 Zn (C.Hs) I + Sb (C,U,}, I 



which, as will be seen, show that the substance analyzed was a compound of iodide of 

 zincethyle and iodide of stibithyle, and therefore prove that SbZug is decomposed even 

 by iodide of ethyle. A similar compound, Zn (C4H5) I + As (C^Hgjj I, is described by 

 Cahours and Riche as formed by the action of iodide of ethyle on arsenide of zinc* 



6th. Weak hydrochloric or sulphuric acids decomposed SbZug with great violence. 

 Hydrogen gas escaped mixed with only a very small amount of antimoniuretted hydro- 

 gen,^ the zinc dissolved, and the greater part of the antimony was left behind as a 

 black amorphous powder. 



7th. Nitric acid also violently decomposed SbZug, forming soluble nitrate of zinc, 



* Coinjit. Rend., June, 1853, p. 1001. 



t Lassaigne found that the gas evolved from an alloy of three parts of zinc and two of antimony, when 

 treated with dilute sulphuric acid, contained at most only two per cent of its volume of antimoniuretted hy- 

 drogen. Journal de Chimie Medicale, Vol. XVII. p. 444, or Berzelius, Rapport Annuel, 1842. 



VOL. V. NEW SERIES. 47 



