[ 68 ] 



VIII. On the Action of Water upon certain Sulphomethylates. 

 By Arthur H. Church, Esq.^ 



IN a former memoir f I tave described the final products of 

 the spontaneous decomposition of certain sulphomethylates : 

 I there reserved for a future communication the full explanation 

 of the reactions concerned. This explanation I believe I can 

 now offer in the results of an experimental inquiry into the action 

 of water upon the neutral sulphate of methyle. 



Now as the sulphomethylatc of methyle, obtained by the 

 mutual action of iodide of methyle and sulphomethj-late of silver, 

 is not to be distinguished from the sulphate of methyle procured 

 by the distillation of a mixture of methylic alcohol and sulphuric 

 acid, we have a special reason, besides the general reasons uni- 

 versally known, for doubling the equivalent of sulphate of me- 

 thyle, and representing it by the formula C"* H^' S- 0^. Then, 

 too, it has been observed J that sulphate of sethyle, by boiling 

 with water, yields together with alcohol an acid solution, in 

 which, after neutralization with carbonate of baryta, sulphsethy- 

 late or isethionate (parathionate ?) and traces of methionate (?) 

 of baryta are contained : also that sulphate of methyle undergoes 

 analogous changes. Now we have seen that we may legitimately 

 view the neutral sulphate of methyle as sulphomethylate of me- 

 thyle. Hence the question arises. Is it not extremely probable, 

 as the final organic products of the decomposition which sulpho- 

 methylate of baryta suffers are the same as those resulting from 

 the similar decomposition of the sulphate of methyle, that this 

 latter body is really produced by the action of boiling water 

 upon the sulphomethylate of baryta ? In this case of the sulpho- 

 methylate of baryta, it may be supposed that at first a double 

 decomposition § occurs between two equivalents, as represented 

 in the following diagram : — 



BaSO* \ BaSOn 



C2 H^ SOV ______ Ba SOV 



Baso" 1,J^^=-- __C2H3S0n 



C2 H3 SO' / C2 H3 SO'' J 



and, in the second place, that the sulphomethylate of methyle is 

 transformed in the presence of water into methylic alcohol, and the 

 stable sulphomethylic acid, according to the following equation: — 



c^ H3 son „f. _ n, JJ4 02 , C2 H^ son 



C^H^SO^/"^ H SO"/- 



* Communicated by tlie Author, 

 t Phil. Mag. S. 4. vol. x. pp. 40-44. 

 t By Wethei'ill, Arm. Pharm. vol. Ixvi. p. 11/. 



§ Or possibly the formula of ordinary sulphomttliylic acid is 2(C^H'*2SO^), 

 while that of the /S-acid is simply C=H^2S0''. 



