392 [Jan. 15, 



lated ammonium compounds, it appeared desirable to prepare the 

 oxide corresponding to these salts. On treating the alcoholic solu- 

 tion of the bromide or iodide with oxide of silver, a liquid was formed 

 which showed no alkaline reaction, and which, on evaporation, de- 

 posited white needles, insoluble in water, moderately soluble in 

 alcohol, easily soluble in ether, which fused at 100 and volatilized 

 at a higher temperature without decomposition. 



These are not the properties of a tetrasubstituted ammonium 

 base ; moreover the combustion led, instead of to the formula 



flowing out of the above conception, to the expression 



C^H.N, 



incompatible with this conception, and revealing at once the true 

 nature both of the original base and its ethylated derivative. The 

 former is a primary, the latter a tertiary monamine : 



CL H_ 



" 



Original base . . C 12 H u N= 11 N ; 



H 



C 12 H 9 

 Ethylated derivative C ie H 19 N=C 2 H 5 N. 



To remove a last doubt which might have been entertained, it 

 became desirable to prove that this latter base could fix another 

 molecule of the iodide of an alcohol radical. Having failed with 

 iodide of ethyl, I tried the action of iodide of methyl, which stands 

 so much closer to hydriodic acid, and was delighted to find that the 

 base is attacked by this compound, the product being an iodide 

 which, when treated with oxide of silver, yielded a powerfully alka- 

 line solution, possessing all the characters of the free ammonium 

 bases. Converted into a chloride and precipitated by dichloride of 

 platinum, this substance furnished a difficultly soluble platinum-salt 

 crystallizing in needles, the combustion and platinum-determination 

 of which gave numbers unequivocally fixing the formula 



C 17 H 22 NPtCl 3 =[(C 12 H 9 ) (C 2 H 6 ) 2 (C H 3 ) N] Cl, PtCl 2 . 



These results show how much preferable, on the whole, for fixing the 

 degree of substitution in ammonias is iodide of methyl, although 



