394 Intelligence ami Miscellaneous Articles. 



2HCl=Sb C 6 H 14 , CI, HC1. It reacts like chloride of potassium or 

 sodium with metallic solutions, and forms with sulphuric acid a sul- 

 phate with disengagement of hydrochloric gas. 



More recently, M. Landoldt has obtained the methyle compound 

 analogous to stibsethyle by a similar process*. It corresponds to 

 trimethammine, being Sb C ! H°=SbMe 3 , and yields a series of com- 

 pounds like those of stibsethyle. When placed in contact with iodide 

 of methyle, an energetic combination ensues, and a crystalline pro- 

 duct is obtained which is SbMe*I, the equivalent of Hofmann's iodide 

 above described. Decomposed by oxide of silver, the hydrated oxide 

 of the new base, which the author calls stibmethylium, is obtained ; 

 it closely resembles the oxide of tetrsethylammonium, and its salts are 

 said to be isomorphous with those of potash. The author writes the 

 formula of the iodide as above, and the oxide SbMe 4 ; this is evi- 

 dently an error; the oxide will be (SbMe 4 H)0, like the correspond- 

 ing nitrogen compound. He has observed that stiba?thyle yields 

 similar compounds with iodide of aethyle, and with iodide of methyle, 

 the analogous body (SbEt'Me)I. 



With these results before us, we are ready to inquire into the 

 constitution of the bodies of the cacodyle series. It must be observed 

 that the elimination of H 2 is characteristic of the alcohols, as is seen 

 in the formation of aldehydes and acids, and they seem to preserve 

 this same character in their combinations j thus the fourth rethyle 

 atom which is combined with triaethammine is decomposed at the 

 temperature of boiling water into C 2 H 4 and H 2 0. 



Let arsenic replace nitrogen in Wurtz'scethammi)ieNC i H.~ = 'NC 1 H b , 

 HH, and we have As OH 7 ; from which, if H 2 be abstracted, there 

 remains As OH 5 =As OH :i , HH, a new base corresponding to stib- 

 sethine ; such a base is contained in the chloride of cacodyle, and has 

 been recognised by M. Gerhard t under the name of arsinef, of 

 which the hydrochlorate and hydrobromate are Bunsen's chloride 

 and bromide of cacodyle. The compound analogous to the oxide of 

 stibmethylium will be (As OH 5 ) 2 , H 2 or OH 12 As 2 (equivalent 

 to K-O), which is alcarsine. The relation between the oxide and 

 the chloride is evident ; it is difficult to believe that the bodies de- 

 scribed by Bunsen as oxychloride and oxybromide of cacodyle are 

 anything else than mixtures of alcarsine with hydrochlorate and 

 hydrobromate of arsine ; and the more so, as their composition after 

 his analyses does not seem to be well-defined. M. Bunsen did not 

 analyse the compounds of alcarsine with oxygen acids ; indeed only 

 the sulphate seems stable ; it is acid and deliquescent, and is pro- 

 bably a bisalt — the bisulphate of arsine. 



The sulphuret of cacodyle is analogous to the hydro-sulphuret of 

 ammonia, and arsine sustains to alcarsine the same relation as am- 

 monia to oxide of ammonium. It is worthy of notice, that there are 

 two conditions of alcarsine ; the one a fuming and spontaneously 

 inflammable liquid, and the other, formed during the slow oxidation 

 of the first, a viscid, syrupy substance, comparatively indifferent to 



* Chem. Gaz. vol. ix. p. 181. 



■f Precis de Chimie Organique, vol. i. p. 389. 



