Mr. G. B. Buckton on the Organo-metallic Radicals. 217 



The same remark also applies to protochloride of copper, Cu, CI, 

 when similarly treated ; no combination of copper and ethyle could 

 be thereby eliminated. 



Action of Zinc-ethyle on Iodide of Stan-ethyle. 



This iodide, C^ Hj Sn, I, was readily obtained by heating sealed 

 tubes containing excess of tinfoil and iodide of ethyle from 150° to 

 100° C. The pure transparent crystals which were obtained by a 

 little management, were introduced, in a melted state, into a retort 

 containing zinc-ethyle. It is necessary to cool the apparatus with 

 water. After breaking up the resulting mass, the retort was heated 

 until the thermometer marked 210° C, and the distillate, which con- 

 tained a slight excess of zinc-ethyle, was agitated with water, and 

 treated with dilute acid, as before described. 



The resulting heavy liquid was again distilled, and fractionized 

 with the thermometer. By far the larger portion came over between 

 170° and 180° as a clear and colourless body, insoluble in water, but 

 soluble, like the other radicals, in ether. That portion which pos- 

 sessed a boiling-point between 176° and 180° C., was taken for 

 examination, and was found, when burned with oxide of copper, to 



give the formula o n tt c /n rr \ 



Sn C^ Hjg, or Sn (C^ Hj),. 



This compound, for which the name stannic bis-ethyle is proposed, has 

 a specific gravity of 1'192. In its external and more prominent 

 characters it resembles plumbic bis-ethyle ; but an exception may be 

 made, that it is more stable. It is very combustible, burning with 

 a coloured flame and scintillation like that exhibited by the metal tin 

 under the flame of the hydro-oxygen blowpipe. 



This radical appears to differ in several particulars from the 

 organo-metal stan-ethyle, C^ Hj Sn, obtained by Dr. Frankland by 

 acting on sheet-zinc with a salt of stan-ethyle. This last body is 

 described as a thick, oily substance, possessed of a powerful odour, 

 and having a specific gravity of 1-55. It differs also in its lower 

 boiling-point, which is about 1.50° C. 



Pure stannic bis-ethyle is perfectly limpid, inodorous, and is acted 

 upon by hydrochloric acid with difficulty. A gas is slowly evolved 

 on the application of heat, and a chloride is formed which seems to 

 be richer in tin than the radical itself. 



The chloride appears to crystallize with difficulty, and at usual 

 temperatures has the consistence of an oil. It possesses a powerfully 

 pungent odour, and when heated, a vapour which painfully attacks 

 the skin of the lace, and produces fits of sneezing. 



A corresponding bromide is formed when bromine is added to 

 stannic bis-ethyle. It is an oily body, with an irritating odour. 

 Wlien acted upon by ammonia, an oxide is precipitated, which with 

 acids forms beautiful crystallizable salts, readily soluble in water. 



A complete history of these salts, and their decompositions with 

 zinc-ethyle, will possess nmch interest, and may prove of value in 

 referring to a few simjjle ladicala the numerous complex bodiej 

 described by Liiwig, &c. 



Phil. Maij. S. 4. Vol. 17. No. 113. March 1859. Q 



