392 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



And from what has gone before, it is concluded, that contraction 

 of the pupil is the active state of the iris, and that dilatation is its 

 enervated condition ; that a healthy retina and cerebral nervous 

 arc are necessary to the motions of the iris, and the ophthalmic 

 ganglion to motion ; and that the primary motion of the iris is due 

 to organic nervous influence, but its forced or animal motion to the 

 reflected stimulus of light upon the retina. 



LVII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ON THE COMPOUND AMMONIAS, AND THE BODIES OF THE CACO- 

 DYLE SERIES. BY T. S. HUNT. 



HPHE beautiful researches of Hofmann and Wurtz have shown the 

 ■*■ existence of a large class of organic alkaloids closely related to 

 ammonia. As regards their composition, we will only recall that 

 in the alkaloids of Wurtz, the elements of an equivalent of ammonia 

 are united with those of a carbo-hydrogen, CH 2 , OH 4 , OH 10 , or what 

 is the same thing, that CH 3 , OH 5 and OH 12 , the so-called radicals 

 methyle, Pethyle and amyle, may be regarded as replacing an atom 

 of hydrogen in ammonia. Hence, as we have before remarked in 

 speaking of them, they sustain to their corresponding alcohols the 

 same relation that ammonia does to water. Water, as we have on 

 more than one occasion shown, is not only the analogue, but the 

 strict homologue of the alcohols, so that the molecule H- is the 

 equivalent (homologue) of C 2 H 6 and its homologues, and H of sethyle, 

 methyle and amyle. The class of bodies under consideration pre- 

 sents some interesting illustrations of this relationship. 



Dr. Hofmann has been able by the action of ammonia upon hydro- 

 bromic and hydriodic aethers, to form directly the corresponding salts 

 of the new alkaloids ; and these alkaloids, with other equivalents of 

 the aethers, have yielded him compounds in which two and three 

 equivalents of hydrogen are replaced by the same or by different 

 carbo- hydrogens; so that representing C-H 5 by Et, the final result 

 of the action of ammonia is N Et 3 , which is still an alkaloid. Other 

 carbo-hydrogens not homologous with pethyle may be introduced, 

 and Hofmann has obtained alkaloids containing one and two equiva- 

 lents of phenyle C 6 H\ with one or more of pethyle. 



Although ammonia and its derived alkaloids form. with acids salts 

 analogous to those of the inorganic bases, they must be distinguished 

 from oxides like Zn 2 0, inasmuch as they unite directly with HC1 

 and NHO 3 , while the oxides yield salts only by the elimination of 

 water ; in chloride of ammonium it is the hypothetical NH 4 , which 

 represents Zn in the chloride of zinc. The analogy between Zn 2 

 and H 2 leads us to suppose the possibility of such a compound as 

 the oxide of ammonium which would be formed by a direct union of 

 ammonia with the elements of water. But such compounds, if they 

 exist, are very unstable ; and as the alkaloids are either readily dis- 

 engaged from their aqueous solutions by heat, or else are insoluble 





