HEXAMETHYLENETETRAMINE AS A REAGENT IN 



MICROSCOPIC QUALITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS 1 



By Howard Irving Cole 



Chemist, Bureau of Science, Manila 



Hexamethylenetetramine (hereinafter referred to as hmt) 

 forms crystalline compounds with many inorganic salts. Some 

 of these compounds are quite insoluble. They are generally of 

 the additive type and hence any attempt to utilize hmt as a 

 reagent in qualitative analysis must take into consideration the 

 negative as well as the positive ion of the compound to be an- 

 alyzed. In microchemical qualitative analysis, it has been found 

 possible to obtain characteristic crystalline precipitates with 

 hmt for certain of the positive ions in any of their combinations 

 by performing the test in hydrochloric acid solution. Vivario 

 and Wagenaar 2 state that characteristic insoluble crystalline 

 compounds are formed with salts of platinum, iridium, palla- 

 dium, osmium, silver, mercury, antimony, bismuth, tin and, in 

 the presence of potassium iodide, with magnesium. Deniges,* 

 . in 1919, suggested that hmt might be used for the detection of 

 bismuth in any of its combinations. I have found that hmt 

 may be used for microchemical detection of other elements 

 besides those above mentioned. 



The present paper gives the result of thousands of microchem- 

 ical tests made with hmt on inorganic compounds to determine 

 all the elements giving characteristic crystalline compounds 

 with this reagent; also the elements giving characteristic crys- 

 talline compounds with hmt and potassium iodide. The best 

 method of applying the tests and their sensitivities have also 

 been determined. 



3 Received for publication September 8, 1922. 



>Pharm. Weekblad 54 (1917) 157. Unf ortu nate ly the on^nal article 

 was not available to me, but there is an excellent abstract in Chem. Abs. 

 - -- - ■« - Chem. Abs. 13 



'Schweiz. Apoth. Ztg. 57 (1919) 497. Abstracted 

 (1919) 2830. 



