MOLECULAR THEORY OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS. 731 



TT 



Of olefiant gas type : olefiant gas - ; chloride of carbon 



Of ether type : ether ?; 5 -? ; chloride of ethyl -5/- 1 ; chlori- 

 C 4 C 4 



riated ethyl S 2 , &c. 



Of alcohol type: alcohol ^ ~ ; acetic acid -, ; chlo- 



C 4 . H 



racetic acid -3 -5! 

 C 4 . H' 



Of aldehyde type: aldehyde- 1 !? '^; chloral 



~. 

 H C 4 . H 



Ammonia. The molecular formula of ammonia appears to be 



N H 



: -, and not -=^. The hydrogen of ammonia being basic, ac- 



"3 ^ 



cording to the first formula, should not be replaced by chlorine, 

 and certainly chlorinated salts of ammonia, analogous to the 

 chlorinated compound ethers, have not been observed. Our 

 knowledge of the composition of the explosive chloride of ni- 

 trogen is not sufficiently certain to decide the question. It 

 will be remembered that N in the formula above is equivalent 

 to O 3 or H 3 , Wohler's white precipitate of mercury HgCl 

 4-NH 3 (page 656), and ordinary white precipitate, HgCl 

 H-HgNH 2 , are assimilated, being expressed respectively by: 

 Cl .N , Cl. N 



npi7 Hgnvig- 



The black compound, produced by solution of ammonia upon 

 calomel, is expressed by -, or possibly by 



Thus amidogen is not necessarily present in the supposed me- 

 tallic amides ; but appears to be more necessary to the constitu- 

 tion of oxamide and urea, particularly the last. Of oxalate of 



ammonia, and oxamide, the molecular formulae are : 





2 .H.H 3 



Cyanogen and cyanides. The formula for cyanogen is 



2 B B 2 



