216 Dr. Anderson on the Products of the 



with strong potash, a volatile base is slowly formed, which is a 

 product of decomposition, and will be afterwards referred to. 

 From these characters it is obvious that sethylopicoline belongs 

 to the ammonium class of bases, and hence picoline itself must 

 be a nitryle base; and this being the case, the formula of the 

 iodine compound might be written thus, C 16 H 12 N + 1, repre- 

 senting it as the iodide of a base corresponding to ammonium, 

 of which the constitution must be C 16 II 12 N, and whose oxide, 

 C 16 I1 I2 N0, must exist in its oxygen acid salts. If we adopt 

 the nomenclature proposed by Hofmann for the ammoniumbases, 

 we should have a very clumsy name for this substance, and I 

 shall therefore continue to call it sethylopicoline, which, though 

 not perfectly correct, is sufficiently distinctive. 



iEthylopicoline, or rather its oxide, is readily obtained by agi- 

 tating the acpieous solution of the iodide with moist oxide of 

 silver, when iodide of silver is precipitated, and the base obtained 

 in solution. In performing this process, heat must be avoided, 

 as oxide of silver decomposes the base at a high temperature, 

 fine violet streaks appearing in the fluid, which rapidly acquires 

 a deep crimson colour. The same change occurs, though more 

 slowly, in the cold, especially if the oxide of silver be added in 

 large excess, and it is therefore desirable that the solution should 

 be separated as rapidly as possible. If this be done, a colourless 

 solution is obtained, having a faint peculiar odour and highly 

 alkaline properties. It restores the blue of reddened litmus, and 

 gives an intense brown with tunneric ; it has a powerfully caustic 

 taste, and produces a soapy sensation when rubbed between the 

 fingers. It absorbs carbonic acid from the air, precipitates 

 alumina, and redissolves it when added in excess. From a solu- 

 tion of corrosive sublimate it throws down the oxide, and with 

 the metallic salts generally it reacts in precisely the same manner 

 as potash or soda. On boiling, its solution acquires a deep red 

 colour, and the odour of a volatile base becomes apparent. By 

 evaporation in vacuo, a hard gummy mass with a green metallic 

 lustre is left behind, which gives a magnificent blood-red solu- 

 tion with water, and deliquesces when exposed to the air. At 

 first I entertained the hope that this substance, though coloured, 

 might, when submitted to analysis, give the results of sethylo- 

 picoline ; a very few experiments, however, sufficed to show that 

 it had undergone decomposition, and no attempt was made to 

 analyse it, but attention was directed to obtaining such double 

 salts as might serve to confirm the constitution of the base. 



Platinochloride of Atthylopicoline. — In order to obtain this 

 salt, nitrate of silver was added to the iodide as long as a preci- 

 pitate was formed, which was separated by filtration, and the 

 excess of silver thrown down by hydrochloric acid. The filtrate 

 was then mixed with a strong solution of bichloride of platinum 



