495 



June 14, 1860. 



General SABINE, R.A., Treasurer and Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



Francis Galton, Esq., Joseph Henry Gilbert, Esq., Thomas Hewitt 

 Key, Esq., Joseph Lister, Esq., The Rev. Robert Main, Robert Wil- 

 liam Mylne, Esq., and Edward Smith, M.D., were admitted into the 

 Society. 



The following communications were read : 



I. " Notes of Researches on the Poly-Ammonias." No. VIII. 

 Action of Nitrous Acid upon Njtrophenylenediamine. By 

 A. W. HOFMANN, LL.D., F.R.S. Received April 5, 1860. 



The experiments of Gottlieb have shown that dinitrophenylamine, 

 when boiled with sulphide of ammonium, is converted into a remark- 

 able base, crystallizing in crimson needles, generally known as nitra- 

 zophenylamine, and for which, in accordance with the views I enter- 

 tain regarding its constitution, I now propose the name Nitrophe- 

 nylenediamine. I owe to the kindness of Dr. Vincent Hall a con- 

 siderable quantity of this substance, which is not quite easily pro- 

 cured. 



I have made a few experiments with this compound in the hope of 

 obtaining some insight into its molecular constitution. If, bearing 

 in mind the numerous analogies between the radicals ethyl and 

 phenyl, we assume that the latter, by the loss of hydrogen, may be 

 converted into a diatomic molecule, phenylene C 6 H 4 , corresponding 

 to ethylene, the existence of a group of bases corresponding to the 

 ethylene-bases cannot be doubted. 



(C 2 



Ethylamine H J-N*. Ethylenediamine 

 H 



Phenylamine H \ N. Phenylenediamine 

 H J 



* H = l; O = 16; C = 12,&c. 

 VOL. X. 



T'h 



2 M 



