231 



The preceding remarks are, I hope, sufficient to establish the 

 formulae of the diatomic ammonias upon a solid basis. I will there- 

 fore only briefly allude to some results which I have obtained in 

 studying the products of decomposition of ethylene-diamine, and 

 which are not less characteristic. Submitted to the action of nitrous 

 acid, this base is decomposed with evolution of nitrogen ; in the first 

 stage of the reaction an indifferent crystalline body is produced, and 

 the final result of the process is a large quantity of pure oxalic acid. 

 The nitrogen evolved during the transformation is accompanied by a 

 very volatile liquid, the odour of which is somewhat similar to that 

 of aldehyde. At the time when I made these experiments I really 

 believed the liquid to be aldehyde, but since I failed in obtaining the 

 crystalline compound with ammonia and in transforming it into acetic 

 acid, I abstained from mentioning this reaction in my note to the 

 Royal Society. I have now scarcely a doubt that the volatile liquid 

 was the oxide of ethylene, isomeric with aldehyde, since discovered 

 by M. Wurtz. The transformation would be 



C 4 H 8 N 2 +2N0 3 =4N + C 4 H 4 2 +4HO. 



In preparing the ethylene-diamine for my experiments, I obtained 

 as a secondary product a small quantity of the second base, which 

 M. Cloe'z has described as acetenamine, and for which I now propose 

 the term diethylene-diamine. This base has exactly the same per- 

 centage composition, whether viewed as a diamine or considered as 

 the monatomic acetenamine of M. Cloe'z. The analysis of the base 

 itself, and of some of its salts, fully confirms the results obtained by 

 that chemist. Bat this base is no primary monamine ; it does not 

 contain the radical acetyl, C 4 H 3 , as supposed by M. Cloe'z ; it is a 

 secondary diamine containing two molecules of ethylene. Aceten- 

 amine, as conceived by M. Cloe'z, should be formed by the action of 

 chloride, bromide, and iodide of vinyl (C 4 H 3 C1, C 4 H 3 Br, C 4 H 3 1) upon 

 ammonia. These reactions do not furnish a trace of the base in 

 question. But there is a more conclusive proof of the diatomic 

 nature of this body, the evidence of which will not be contested by 

 M. Cloe'z, this is the determination of the vapour-density. Experi- 

 ment gave the number 27. The diatomic formula, C 8 H 10 N 2 , referred 

 to 4 volumes of vapour, requires 2' 9. According to the monatomic 

 view, a vapour-density of 1*45 should have been found. 



