1865.] of the Lactic Series. 193 



We have not attempted to give a name to the body from which ethylic 

 amylohydroxalate is directly produced by the action of water, as shown in 

 the last of the foregoing equations. The resources of chemical nomencla- 

 ture, already too severely taxed, would scarcely be able to elaborate a 

 rational name for this body, which consists of oxalic ether wherein an atom 

 of oxygen is replaced, half by amyl and half by zincmonamyl, whilst a 

 second atom of zincmonamyl is substituted for one of ethyl. 



Ethylic amylohydroxalate is a somewhat oily, transparent, and slightly 

 straw-coloured liquid of specific gravity '9449 at 13 C., possessing a plea- 

 sant aromatic odour and a burning taste. It boils at 203 C., and has a 

 vapour-density of 5'47. The above formula requires 6'0, which is removed 

 to an unusual extent from the experimental number. To this discrepancy 

 we shall again refer presently. 



Section B of the oily liquid, after careful rectification, gave a product 

 boiling at 224-225, and yielded on analysis results agreeing with the 

 formula 



C U H 22 3 . 



This formula might be interpreted as that of ethylic amyloethoxalate, the 

 rational formula of which would be 



OC 2 H 3 . 



We were at first inclined to regard this as the actual constitution of the 

 new ether, believing it to be possible that ethylic oxalate and amylic iodide 

 mutally decomposed each other, producing a mixture of amylic and ethylic 

 oxalates with the iodides of amyl and ethyl. An analogous decomposition 

 of mixed ethereal salts of oxygen acids has been recently noticed, but the 

 test of experiment obliged us to abandon this view of the reaction. We 

 found, it is true, a remarkable depression of temperature, amounting to 

 9*3 C., on mixing one atom of ethyl oxalate with one of amylic iodide, 

 but on submitting the mixture to distillation, the thermometer rose to the 

 boiling-point of amylic iodide (147) before ebullition commenced ; thus 

 showing that none of the much more volatile ethylic iodide had been 

 formed. No transfer of radicals therefore takes place when ethylic oxalate 

 is heated with amylic iodide, and consequently no zincethyl can be formed 

 when this mixture is acted upon by zinc. We therefore prefer to view the 

 ether now under consideration as ethylic ethyl-amylhydroxalate, analogous 

 in constitution to Wurtz's ethylic ethyl lactate. 



|' C 6 H " 



CJ OC 2 H S CX OC 2 H 5 



to Mr- 



IOC, H.. IOC 2 H 5 . 



Ethylic ethyl lactate, Ethylic ethyl-amylhydroxalate. 



