116 



Still greater delicacy may be obtained l)y slanting the whole apparatus, 

 giving the manometer a decided inclination. 



Methylation of Halogen Amides with Diatomethane.* 

 By Jas. H. Ransom. 



Since the classical work of Hofmann on the rearrangement of the 

 halogen amides to derivatives of the isocyanates the mechanism of this 

 reaction has been the subject of numerous investigations. HoogewerfC 

 and van Dorp extended the work of Hofmann and pointed out the proba- 

 bility of a similarity in this reaction and that known as the "Beckmann 

 rearrangement" of the oximes. After some more recent work on the 

 brom-amides by Lengfeld and Stieglitz, the latter, with his pupils, studied 

 the influence of the amide hydrogen atom on the rearrangement. He 

 found that when this hydrogen was replaced by an alkyl radical no 

 rearrangement took place in the sense of the Hofmann reaction, and 

 suggested as the simplest and most reasonable explanation, that at some 

 early stage of the reaction, under the influence of the alkali, the molecule 



■■'This work was undertaken during the past summer, at the Uniyeriity of Chicago, in 

 company with Dr. Julius Stieglitz. 



