636 EEPOET— 1888. 



fives of /3-i:aplithylamine can be diazotised and the diazo-salts converted into the 

 corresponding oxy-corapounds by the usual reaction. 



The author and F. J. East have recently found that the nitrohenzeneazo-/3- 

 naphth3'lamines can be converted into the corresponding ^-napbtliyl-acetates by 

 heating them with acetic acid and adding sodium nitrite. Weinberg has shown also 

 that benzeneazo-^-naphthol can be ethylated, and the author and F. J. East have 

 shown that this and other /3-naphtholazo-derivatives can be acetylated. The re- 

 duction products of the ethyl and acetyl derivatives tend to show that the alkyl 

 or acetyl is not attached to the N-atom, as would be required by Zincke's hydrazoue 

 formula or by Liebermann's formula, but further investigation in this direction is 

 considered necessary, and is being undertaken in the authors laboratory. 



The author next pointed out that although the results of the most recent experi- 

 ments thus appeared to favour a return to the old formuloe — 



^ \NH,(^) ^""^ ^^ \OH{l:l) 



the non- phenolic character of the /3-oxy-compounds and the other differences shown 

 by these and the 3-amido-compounds when compared with those of the a-series, 

 must still be considered as evidence of a different constitution. To express this 

 ditl'erence in the case of the orthoamidoazo-compounds it is suggested that the 

 N : N-group and the NHo, being in the ortho-position, interact with the formation 

 of a closed chain, and the author proposes for these and the analogous oxy-com- 

 pounds the general formulse — 



X"/ I \N.Y X"/ I \n.y 



H H H 



The first of these expressions shows the relationship of the orthoamidoazo- 

 compounds to the azimides of Griess into which (or into isomeric substances) they 

 can be converted, as shown by Zincke, by the action of oxidising agents, the latter 

 simply removing two atoms of hydrogen and leaving 



X"< I >N.Y 



The same formula explains the difficultly diazotisable character of the compounds, 

 their feebly basic properties, and the formation of ortho-diamines by redaction. 



The second formula, in which oxygen is represented as tetravalent, appears to 

 accord with the general properties of the /3- or ortho-oxyazo-compounds. Thus it 

 is seen that the replaceable hydrogen atom is attached to the oxygen, but is not in 

 the hydroxylic state, as the oxygen forms one atom in a closed ring. This may be 

 the explanation of the non-phenolic character of these compounds. With reference 

 to the tetravalency of oxygen the author called attention to Friedel's compound 

 (CH3)oO.HC], as well as to the general arguments based on the position of the 

 element in the periodic system. 



3. The Theory of Solution.^ By T. Sterby Hunt, LL.B., F.R.S. 



The author began by a brief statement of Mendel^ef's views on solution, as 

 put forth since 1886 and resumed in the latter's recent paper on the compounds of 

 ethylic alcohol and water, presented to the Chemical Society of London in 1887. 

 In this it is maintained that the products of the dilution with water of bodies like 

 alcohol and sulphuric acid include several distinct chemical compounds, with 

 greater or less proportions of water, which compounds may in some cases be 

 separated as definite crystalline solids by reduction of temperature. Their presence 

 is also made evident by the study of the relation of the specific gravity to the cen- 



' Published in extenno in the Chemical News for Sept. 28, 1888. 



