464 Mr. Schorlemrner on the Hydrocarbons [Nov. 16, 



cium almost impossible. This separation, however, is readily effected by 

 bisulphite of soda. 



III. Action of Sodium and Amyl Iodide upon Acetic Ether, 

 For this reaction the compounds of sodium derived from acetic ether 

 were prepared as before, and were then submitted to the action of amylic 

 iodide for several hours at the boiling-point of the mixture. When the 

 sodium had all become converted into iodide, water was added and the su- 

 pernatant liquid decanted. We reserve a complete description of this liquid 

 for our next communication, and will here confine ourselves to the separa- 

 tion from it of oenanthylic acid, which was obtained as follows : The 

 crude product, after drying over chloride of calcium, was submitted to rec- 

 tification, and the portion boiling between 170 and 190 C. collected apart 

 and decomposed by ebullition with alcoholic potash. By this treatment 

 we destroyed any ethylic amylacetone carbonate and ethylic diamylacetone 

 carbonate that were present, and obtained a potash-salt of an acid derived 

 from acetic acid by the substitution of one atom of amyl for one of hydrogen. 

 The potash-salt thus obtained was distilled with excess of sulphuric acid 

 diluted with a large quantity of water. Upon the distillate there floated 

 an oily acid, possessing an odour resembling oenanthylic acid. This acid 

 was converted into an ammonia-salt, from which a silver-salt was prepared 

 by precipitation. After being well washed with cold water, this salt yielded 

 numbers on analysis closely corresponding with the formula of amylacetate 

 or cenanthylate of silver : 



OAg 



We have also examined the barium-salt, which is an amorphous soapy 

 substance. Dried at 100 C., '2715 grm. gave '1599 grm. of barium sul- 

 phate, corresponding to 34-62 per cent, of barium. Barium oenanthylate 

 contains 34 '09 per cent, of barium. We believe amylacetic acid to be 

 identical with cenanthylic acid. 



The concluding portion of the paper is devoted to a discussion of the 

 theoretical bearings of the reactions above described, and to the investi- 

 gation of the internal architecture of the synthetically prepared ethers, 

 acids, and ketones. 



II. " Researches on the Hydrocarbons of the Series C H H 2)!+2 ." 

 No. II. By C. SCHORLEMMER, Esq., Assistant in the Labora- 

 tory of Owens College, Manchester. Communicated by Prof. 

 H. E. ROSCOE. Received July 20, 1865. 



From my experiments communicated to the Royal Society on the 6th 

 of April, 1865, I concluded that the question, whether only one series of 

 hydrocarbons of the general formula C rt Hzw+s exists, or whether this 



