—. sa: Hunt on the Compound Ammonias. 
et an oxyd of cacodyl, for its formula is C2 HAs Oz, and 
being anhydrous it is equivalent to a compound of ammonia with 
oxygen, and not of ammonium as M. Bunsen’s theory demands. 
MM. Léwig and Schweizer assert that by oxydation, stibethyl 
yields C:H:Sb=Sb Et, which combines with O;,Ss. As we 
have no other evidence that the type of the ammonia is ever thus 
destroyed, it is more probable that the action removes He from 
one atom of Et, as in the formation of stibethine, and oxydizes 
the two remaining atoms of ethyl, leaving H in their place; 
Sb, C:Hs=Sb, C2Hs, HH, corresponding to arsine, and like It 
eombining with O2,S2. (Os in their notation not being divisible 
by two, is inadmissible, unless the formula is to be doubled.) 
The properties.of the new compound, -stibethylic acid of the 
author, and C:HsSb Os in his notation, but more probably C2Hs 
b Oz, lead us to conclude that it is the antimonial species cor- 
responding to alcargen, C:HsAsQz. It is a white solid, soluble 
in water and alcohol but insoluble in ether, and is converted by 
HS, into an odorous compound, in which its oxygen is replaced 
by sulphur; the history of the body is not however complete. 
T remarked four years since, that glycocoll is the nitrogen spe 
cies corresponding to alcargen, and published in this Journal* 
some experiments upon the action of sulphuretted hydrogen upon 
nitrous ether, undertaken with the hope of obtaining the nitrogen 
compound corresponding to alcarsine. M. Laurent was, however; _ 
disposed to regard glycocoll as the amid of a bibasic acid C2H+0s, 
the homologue of carbonic acid, and hence explained its mono- 
basic acid character ;+ but to this view it is to be objected that 
the ordinary amids of bibasic acids are either neutral like oxamid, 
or acid without any basic characters like oxamic acid. Glycocoll 
is to be regarded as the isomere of glycollamic acid, precisely a 
the alkaloids, furfurine and benzoline are known to be isomeres— 
allotropic forms of the normal amids, and corresponds to etham- 
mine less H2+Oz, or to the product which should be obtained 
by the oxydation of Sb Et. Its capacity to exchange H for K, 
is unlike that of acetic acid or alcohol, for the saline power of 
these belongs not to the earbohydrogen elements, but to the unre 
placed H of the H»O:—nor in this view is the saline hydrogen 
of glycocoll similar to that of oxamic acid; it is an atom of hy- 
drogen in the ammonia itself, which is replaceable, as in aspatag}9s 
itself the binamid of a bibasie acid, and in paramid.t 
I conclude these observations by calling attention to the results 
obtained by Mr. Hofmann in decomposing the compound ammo- 
nias by a nitrite.§ I was the first to show that the elegant pro 
cess by which Piria had succeeded in decomposing asparagin 
dS ee te a a tl 
* Vol. iv, pp. 108—266, 350. Thid, vol. ix, p. 64. 
¢ See my remarks on this subject in this Yount Sr oa ae : 
§ Comptes Rendus des Travaux, Fev. 1851, p. 42, from Jour. de Pharmacit, 
& viii : 
