TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 975 
hot or cold water, alcohol, or dilute acids; and with mercuric chloride it gives a 
white crystalline compound, (C,H,),.S,CH,Cl. HgCl,, which is soluble in hot 
water. 
The above-mentioned salts of diethylenesulphide-methyl-sulphine undergo de- 
composition on heating, and yield sublimates of diethylene disulphide. The haloid 
salts give also the corresponding methyl compounds. In this behaviour when 
heated, in their method of formation, and in their general properties, they resemble 
the salts of trimethyl-sulphine, from which, however, they differ widely in some 
respects. None of the salts, for instance, are deliquescent, which is a marked pro- 
perty of those of trimethyl-sulphine. The platinic chloride compounds differ m 
composition and properties. But'the most marked characteristic of the diethylene- 
sulphide-methyl-sulphine salts isto be found in their behaviour with alkalis, Thus 
the sulphate treated with barium hydrate in the cold gives a precipitate of barium 
sulphate and a solution which is strongly alkaline (before sufficient baryta has been 
added to decompose all the salt), and from which the sulphate can be again 
obtained by neutralising with sulphuric acid and evaporating to dryness. This 
solution undoubtedly contains the base, (U,H,),S,CH,OH ; which, however, cannot 
be separated, as it quickly undergoes a change on standing and is converted, by loss 
of the elements of water, into an oily liquid possessing a very peculiar and disagree- 
able smell. This oil is produced at once if the iodide or other salt be boiled with 
potash or even with an alkaline carbonate, which shows that diethylenesulphide- 
methyl-sulphine hydroxide, unlike trimethyl-sulphine hydroxide, is capable of being 
turned out of its compounds by the alkalis. The investigation of this oil is not yet 
completed. 
In 1865 Dehn (‘ Ann. Chem. Pharm. Suppl.,’ iv. 83), described the action of 
ethyl sulphide on ethylene bromide when these are heated together with water in 
sealed tubes. His main products were ethyl bromide, diethylene disulphide, and 
triethyl-sulphine bromide; but he also obtained small quantities of two other 
sulphine compounds. His method was to remove by suitable means the diethylene 
disulphide and ethyl bromide, to treat the remaining aqueous solution with silver 
oxide, and then to add excess of hydrochloric acid and fractionally precipitate with 
platinic chloride. By this means he obtained three distinct compounds, of which 
the last to come down was the triethyl-sulphine salt, {(C,H,),SCl1},PtCl,, which is 
soluble in, and can be crystallised from, hot water. The two others were obtained 
as yellow precipitates, insoluble in all ordinary solvents. Dehn estimated the 
platinum in the first of these and the platinum, carbon, and hydrogen in the 
second. His results led him to conclude that they were compounds of the formule 
(C,H,),S"'Cl,.PtCl, and (C,H,) (C,H,),S"Cl,.PtCl,,—what he called sulphinic salts, 
containing hexad sulphur, as opposed to sulphinous salts in which the sulphur is 
tetrad. It seems almost certain, however, judging from the method of formation, 
from the properties of the platinic salts themselves, and from the results of Dehn’s 
analyses, that he was really dealing with compounds analogous to the diethy- 
lenesulphide-methyl-sulphine platinic-chloride salt described above: viz, with 
{(C,H,).8,},(C,H,)CI,.2PtCl, and (C,H,),8,(C,H;)Cl.PtCl,. The percentages of 
carbon, hydrogen, and platinum, calculated from these formule, those calculated 
from Dehn’s formule, and those found by him, agree with one another within the 
limits of experimental error; the chlorine and the sulphur, which differ widely, 
were not estimated by him. If the view here advanced be correct, then Dehn’s 
reaction may be represented by the equations :— 
(1) 2C,H,Br, + 2(C,H,),S =(C,H,).S, + 4C,H,Br. 
(2) (C,H,).S + C,H.Br = (C,H,),SBr. 
(3) (C,H,)S, + C,H, Br = (C,H,),S,.C,H,Br. 
(4) 2(C,H,).S, + O,H,Br, = {(C,H,).5,}..C,H, Bry. 
10. An apparently new Hydrocarbon distilled from Japanese Petroleum. 
By Dr. Divers and T. Nakamura. 
