306 BUNSEN ON THE CACODYL SERIES. 
but appears to undergo a similar decomposition to that of the 
bromide. It destroys glass, and can therefore only be procured 
in a pure state in platinum vessels. Its composition may with the | 
greatest certainty be represented by C,H, As, + F = Kd F. 
C. Compounds of the Oxygen and Haloid Salts of Cacodyl. 
The substances to which our attention is directed in this di- 
vision are very remarkable in many respects. They afford an ex- 
ample of compounds of organic oxides with haloid salts, which can 
be formed directly from their proximate constituents, and again 
be decomposed in the same way. Their formation corresponds 
with one of the most common phenomena attending decompo- 
sition in inorganic chemistry, but which I believe is quite new 
in organic. It is well known that the chlorine compounds of 
bismuth, tin, antimony, and many other metals, are partially 
decomposed by the action of water into muriatic acid and oxide, 
which last combines with the unchanged chloride, and forms 
what we call basic chlorides, or oxichlorides. Cacodyl corre- 
sponds most perfectly with these metals in this species of reac- 
tion. We find similar compounds formed under the same con- 
ditions. But these oxyhaloid compounds may, moreover, be 
formed directly from their proximate constituents. The oxide of 
cacodyl combines with its iodide and forms a crystallizable com- 
pound, in the same way that the oxide of mercury combines 
with its chloride. 
Different views are taken of the constitution of these bodies. 
They are regarded as compounds of the oxide and haloid, or as 
oxides in which a portion of the oxygen has been replaced by 
an equivalent portion of the haloid. When we attempt to apply 
this latter view to the explanation of the cacodyl compounds, 
certain facts arise, which stand in direct contradiction with some 
views which are universally regarded as correct. There can 
therefore be no doubt as to the interpretation of these results, 
and we believe we have found an important ground for the opi- 
nion, that the true character of organic compounds is to be sought 
for less in the number and arrangement of the atoms, than 
in the opposite view which is founded on their peculiar nature. 
The investigation of the science in this field is extending, and it 
is here that this opposite view appears concealed from our per- 
ception, and hence it becomes the more important to publish 
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