289 



could be recrystallized from boiling water, or better from hydro- 

 chloric acid. 



This compound contained 



C 16 H 19 BrPCl,PtCl 2 . 



A difficultly soluble gold- salt, crystallizing from boiling water in 

 small scales, was found to have the corresponding composition, 



C 16 H 19 BrPCl, AuCl 3 . 



Very different results were observed when the whole of the bromine 

 was removed by means of oxide of silver. A powerfully alkaline 

 solution was thus obtained, which, converted into hydrochlorate, gave, 

 with bichloride of platinum, a precipitate only after very considerable 

 evaporation. The precipitate was likewise of a deep orange-red 

 colour ; it readily dissolved in boiling water, from which it separated 

 on cooling in the form of well-defined octahedra having the compo- 

 sition 



C 16 H 18 PCl,PtCl 2 . 



Terchloride of gold furnished likewise a crystalline precipitate 

 very similar in appearance to the gold-salt previously mentioned, but 



containing 



C 16 H 18 PCI, AuCl 3 . 



The action of bibromide of ethylene on triethylphosphine, and 

 the subsequent transformation of the compound produced, is readily 

 explained. The two substances unite in equal equivalents, the pro- 

 duct of the reaction being the bromide of a phosphonium, in which 

 the fourth equivalent of hydrogen is replaced by a compound mole- 

 cule, C 4 H 4 Br (brominetted ethyl ?), of monatomic substitution-power, 



C 4 H 5 ] 



Bromide of triethyl-bromethylene-C 4 H g (PR 

 phosphonium C 4 H 5 r * 



(C 4 H 4 Br)'J 



The compound phosphonium of this bromide possesses very con- 

 siderable stability, as is sufficiently evinced by its deportment with 

 nitrate of silver, and by the formation of the platinum- and of the 

 gold- salt. All my attempts, however, to separate the base itself 

 have entirely failed. Under the influence of oxide of silver, the 

 bromide yields an alkaline solution possessing all the characters of 

 the -onium-bases. The body in solution, however, no longer belongs 



x2 



