424 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO CHEMISTRY CHAP. 



and then with ethyl iodide, when ordinary ether (boiling at 

 37 C.) was formed 



C 2 H 5 OK + IC 2 H 5 = KI + (C 2 H 5 ) 2 O. 



Ether was thus proved to be a copulated compound con- 

 taining two ethyl groups, C 2 H 5 , and not merely the oxide 

 of a single radical, C 4 H 10 . This view was confirmed by acting 

 on potassium ethoxide with methyl iodide, CH 3 I, when 



C* TT "i 



ethyl methyl ether, p|j 5 \O, was produced and with amyl 



f TT ^ 

 iodide, C 5 H U I, when ethyl amyl ether ^ ^ 2 TT 5 \Q, was pro- 



^'5 ri ll-' 



fTrT ~i 



duced ; methyl amyl ether ; ^ -rl [ O, was also prepared 



by the action of amyl iodide, C 5 H n I, on potassium meth- 

 oxide, CH 3 OK. 



Williamson concluded that : 



" Alcohol is therefore water in which half the hydrogen is 

 replaced by carburetted hydrogen, 1 and ether is water in 

 which both atoms of hydrogen are replaced by carburetted 

 hydrogen, thus : 



H Q C 2 H 5Q 



H U H L 



" From the perfect analogy of properties between the 

 known terms of the alcoholic series, it was to be expected 

 that similar substitutions might be expected in the others ; 

 and this expectation has been verified by experiment .... 

 Methylic alcohol is, therefore, expressed by the formula 



r^T-T (~* TT 



TT 3 O. as common alcohol is Vr 5 O: and in the same 

 IT. xl 



(~* TT 



manner amylic alcohol is 5 -rr 11 O, and the same of the 



higher ones." (loc. tit. pp. 107 and 108). 



Williamson (1852) on the water-type. In a paper " On 

 the Constitution of Salts" (Journ. Chem. Soc., 1852, 4, 

 1 i.e. by the hydrocarbon-radical, C 2 H 5 . 



