88 ANIMAL CHEMISTRY LECTURE IV. 



Perhaps a still more interesting mode of obtaining methyl- 

 compounds consists in submitting disulphide of carbon to pro- 

 longed treatment with chlorine gas, whereby it is converted into 

 perchloride of carbon, which by the continuous action of nascent 

 hydrogen yields the following series of compounds : 



Marsh-gas Derivatives 

 C C1 4 Perchloride of carbon 

 CH C1 3 Chloroform 

 CH 3 Cl a Dichloromethene 

 CH 3 C1 Chloride of methyl 

 CH 4 Methene, or marsh-gas 



Thus, among monocarbon compounds of purely artificial pro- 

 duction, we have the following interesting bodies, of which all 

 save the last occur naturally in the vegetable or animal kingdom, 

 namely, urea, formic acid> prussic acid, trimethylamine, and 

 chloroform. 



(92.) The principal members of the dicarbon group, namely, 

 alcohol and acetic acid, together with their respective congeners, 

 are procurable from monocarbon compounds by a variety of 

 processes. Thus, according to some observations of my own, on 

 submitting a mixture of marsh-gas and carbonic oxide to a full 

 red heat, acetylene or klumene is produced, thus, 



Marsh-gas Carb. oxide Water Klumene 



CH 4 + CO = H 2 + C 3 H 3 ; 



and this klumene, when acted upon by nascent hydrogen, yields 

 olefiant gas, or ethylene, thus : 



Klumene Hydrogen Ethylene 



C a H a + H a = C a H 4 



Now, olefiant gas, as pointed out by Faraday and Hennel 

 nearly fifty years ago, and as rediscovered and established beyorid 

 question by Berthelot within the last few years, is absorbed by 



