304 



solid. Zincethyl boils at 118 C., and distils unchanged. The spe- 

 cific gravity of its vapour is 4*251. Several analyses of zincethyl 



prove its formula to be 



C 4 H 5 Zn. 



The vapour volume of zincethyl is highly remarkable, and almost 

 compels us to conclude that the vapour volume of the double atom 

 of zinc is only equal to that of oxygen, instead of corresponding 

 with the volume of hydrogen, in accordance with the generally re- 

 ceived supposition. Zincethyl, therefore, appears to belong to the 

 so-called water type, and to consist of two volumes of ethyl and one 

 volume of zinc vapour ; the three volumes being condensed to two : 

 for if we were to assume that an equivalent of zinc occupies the 

 same vapour volume as an equivalent of hydrogen, we should then 

 have the anomaly of the combination of equal volumes of two radi- 

 cals being attended by condensation. 



Although zincethyl is remarkable for the intense energy of its 

 affinities, which place it nearly at the head of the list of electro- 

 positive bodies, yet it does not appear to be capable of forming any 

 true compounds with electro-negative elements, its reactions being 

 all double decompositions in which the constituents of the zincethyl 

 separate. Zincethyl is spontaneously inflammable in atmospheric 

 air or oxygen ; but when a few drops, diluted with ether to prevent 

 inflammation, are passed into a mercurial eudiometer containing dry 

 atmospheric air, a rapid absorption of oxygen takes place, with the 

 formation of a white amorphous solid composed of zinc, ethyl, and 

 oxygen. This reaction, which is also common to zincmethyl and 

 zincamyl, led me to suppose that, like cacodyl, these bodies com- 

 bined directly with oxygen ; but the results of a closer study of the 

 action of oxygen upon zincethyl prove that no such compound is 

 formed ; the white body being ethylate of zinc, and containing no 

 organo- metallic compound, in the strict sense of the term. The 

 action of oxygen upon zincethyl is expressed in the following equa- 

 tion : 



The ethylate of zinc thus produced is decomposed by water into 

 hydrated oxide of zinc and alcohol 



Zn O C 4 H 5 O I f C 4 H 5 O HO 

 2HOJ I ZnOHO. 



