66 T. S. Hunt on the Constitution of Leucine. 
The farther researches of Wurtz upon the decomposition of the 
ureas will, I think, enable us to understand more clearly the 
nature of these bodies. The formic urea, by the action of a 
solution of potash, is resolved into carbonic acid and two equiva- 
lents of ammonia; acetic urea, which differs from it by C, 
is decomposed in a similar manner and yields one equivalent of 
ammonia and one of a new alkaloid homologous with it, which 
is represented by C,H,N. The transformation may be thus 
represented : 
Formic urea, C,H ,N,O, +2KHO,=C,K,0,+NH,+NH,,. 
Acetic urea, C,H,N,O,+2KHO,=C,K,0,+NH,+C,H, N. 
n the same way metacetic urea yields C, HH. N ; these aieiaile 
Be to their respective alcohols the same relation that ammonia 
does to water. The action of potash upon the cyanic ethers has 
enabled M. Wurtz to obtain two new bodies in a state of purity ; 
for as the ureas consist of these ethers with the addition of NH,, 
we can easily see that the decomposition of the latter will give the 
alkaloids unmixed with ammonia. The discoverer has described 
them under the names a“ methylamid and ethylamid, but me- 
thylamine and ethylamine are more consonant with the ‘nomen- 
clature adopted for the cake, The first is a permanent gas, 
and the second a very volatile liquid, both having a strong odor 
of ammonia, powerfully alkaline and caustic ; they precipitate 
metallic solutions, and form with acids, crystallizable salts, which 
are distinguished by their ready solubility in hot absolute alcohol.* 
. Dumas iegests that from their similarity of odor, they may 
often be mistak en for ammonia, when evolved in organic trans- 
formations. 
t now nw Htogics important to consider what will be the results 
of the action of alkalies upon the isomeres of the ureas, and the — 
other bodies which we have placed beside them. M. Wurtz, at i 
the time when he described the first, had not discovered these 
new alkaloids, and in his subsequent memoir does not appear to 
have submitted them to experiment. It will probably be found 
that their neg ae yields ammonia ay and not the new 
alkaloids, and that the difference between metacetic nen and 
its isomere is that while the latter is he binamid of the acid 
C,H,O,, the former (as appears from the results of its decom- 
position) i is the amido-ethylamid of carbonic acid, 
The urethanes will probably be found to yield methylamine and 
ethylamine by the action of potash, but it is otherwise with their 
isomeres, the glycocolls; Liebig has found that leucine evolves am- 
monia and hydrogen by the action of hydrate of potash and forms 
a valerianile. Horsford, on the other hand, peers the evolution 
* Chem. Gaz ette, Marck 15th, from Compt. Rend., Feb. 12th, 1849. 
