BUTYRATE OF DIMETHYLAMIX. 259 



complicated chemical products, till finally " organizable 

 protoplasm" was reached. This expression, of course, 

 I regard as even more objectionable than Hackel's 

 viable plasma, and, in fact, is either absurdly tauto- 

 logical, or meaningless. He gives as a specimen of the 

 mode in which " organizable protoplasm" may have 

 been reached in the laboratory of nature, an analysis 

 of the process by which a complex substance, the 

 bubyrate of dimethylamin, can be made in the labora- 

 tory of the chemist. Mr. Spencer describes this pro- 

 cess in a somewhat general way, giving the series of 

 products obtained by successive substitutions and re- 

 actions ; but as this hardly exhibits the nature of the 

 process in its true light, Mr. Edward Davies, Chemist 

 of the Royal Institution of Liverpool, has gone over 

 the matter in full detail. I give the description in 

 detail, because although the extreme difference be- 

 tween living matter and the proximate principles 

 which are the products of its death, has been insisted 

 upon over and over again ; yet nothing can give an 

 adequate idea of that except reiteration of details : 



" The following is a sketch of the simplest process known to 

 chemists for obtaining butyrate of dimethylamin by the use of 

 inorganic materials alone : 



" Firstly, we pass bisulphide of carbon and sulphuretted 

 hydrogen over copper at a red heat, and get light carburetted 

 hydrogen. This is then treated with chlorine, to give chloride 

 of methyl, and this, with caustic potash, furnishes methyl- 

 alcohol. Iodide of methyl is made by distilling phosphorus, 

 iodine, and methyl-alcohol together. The iodide of methyl is 

 heated with ammonia in a sealed tube, when iodide of dimethy- 

 lamin is formed with other products. The iodide of dimethy- 

 lamin, distilled with caustic potash, gives dimethylamin. 



172 



