91 



which it professed to represent, and which has its place in the earlier 

 volumes of our Transactions, would not be unacceptable to the Mem- 

 bers of the Royal Society, of which Society Halley has ever been 

 regarded as one of the brightest ornaments. 



II. " On the Isolation of the Radical, Mercuric Methyl." By 

 GEORGE BOWDLEE BUCKTON, Esq., F.R.S. Received De- 



cember 4s, 1857. 



(Abstract.) 



Dr. Frankland, in his valuable memoir communicated to the Royal 

 Society, has pointed out that hydrargyro-methylium, zinc-ethylium, 

 and analogous bodies may be regarded as formed upon the type of 

 the metallic oxides, the oxygen of which he considered was repre- 

 sented by methyl, ethyl, &c. The hypothetical radical hydrargyro- 



methylium, C 2 H 3 < g|, according to this view would correspond to 



numerous oxides, O < TJ 



Diinhaupt and Strecker have studied and described the salts of 

 hydrargyro-methylium and hydrargyrsethylium, but chemists do not 

 appear, hitherto, to have succeeded in reducing these bodies to the 

 mercuric type, or in preparing the metalloids themselves. 



The author has undertaken experiments with a view to the com- 

 pletion of this portion of their history, a brief summary of which he 

 now offers. 



Iodide of hydrargyro-methylium was prepared through the agency 

 of sunlight, in the usual manner ; and after the removal of every 

 trace of iodide of methyl, it was intimately mixed in a mortar with 

 finely powdered cyanide of potassium. Small charges were then in- 

 troduced into flasks and distilled over the gas flame. Gaseous and 

 solid products are formed, together with a heavy liquid, which passes 

 into the receiver. After washing with water, and rectification over 

 chloride of calcium, this liquid has the following properties : 



It is colourless, highly refractive to light, and almost wholly in- 

 soluble in water. When pure, it has a faint and somewhat sweetish 

 odour. It is very combustible, and burns with a luminous flame 

 and abundant evolution of mercurial vapour. It is very soluble in 



