TBANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 649 



7. The Reduction-products of the Nitro -paraffins and Alhyl Nitrites. 

 Bij Professor Dunstan and T. S. Dymoxd. 



The reduction-products of ethyl nitrite have been investigated by Geuther, who 

 used zinc and diluted sulphuric acid as the reducing agent, and found that the 

 reaction was represented by the equation C2H5N0.2 + 2H„ = C2H50H + NH3. A 

 trace of ethylamine was also formed, but this has been attributed to impurity in 

 the ethyl nitrite. Emil Kopp used ammonium sulphide as the reducing agent, 

 and also obtained alcohol and ammonia, but apparently no ethylamine. 



The authors have studied the reduction of ethyl nitrite, using ferrous hydroxide 

 as the reducing agent, and have obtained an entirely different result. More 

 than two-thirds of the nitrogen of the ethyl nitrite is liberated in the form of gas, 

 either nitrous oxide or nitrogen : the remainder appears as ammonia and a trace 

 of ethylamine. If potassium hydroxide is mixed with the ferrous compound a 

 considerable quantity of potassium hyponitrite is formed. It is also probable that 

 ethyl hyponitrite, a compound that has not yet been prepared, may be formed as 

 an intermediate compound. The authors are further investigating the change with 

 the object of isolating this compound and of discovering the mode of formation of 

 the ethylamine. They have previously shown (' Journal of the Chemical Society,' 

 August 1887) that sodium nitrite is reduced by ferrous hydroxide to nitrogen and 

 ammonia, sodium hyponitrite being formed as an intermediate product. 



The reduction-products of the nifcro-paraffins bave been studied by Victor 

 Meyer. Nitroethane was reduced, by iron and acetic acid, to ethylamine without 

 the formation of any ammonia. C.,IL,NOo + 3H., = C.^HjNH2 + 2HoO. When 

 ferrous hydroxide is used the authors tind that much ethylamine is produced, a 

 little ammonia, and a substance having a strong alliaceous smell, which is being 

 further investigated. No gaseous product is formed. Nitromethane yields, under 

 the same conditions, methylamine, a little ammonia, and a substance having an 

 alliaceous smell. Nitro-benzene is entirely converted into aniline. The authors 

 intend to further investigate these reactions, which they think are likely to throw 

 new light on the constitution of inorg;anic and organic nitro-compounds. 



8. On the Second Monobromo-benzene. Bij Professor Fittica. 



9. Saccharine, the new Sweet Product from Goal-tar. By Dr. Fahlberg. 



10. On a Partial Separation of the Constituents of a Sohition during 

 Expansion by Eise of Temperature. By Professor J. W. Mallet, 

 F.B.S. 



It was observed in regard to a thermometer containing coloured alcohol, the 

 colour due probably to cochineal, that on several occasions when rise of temperature 

 occurred somewhat gradually in the room after rather severely cold weather the 

 upper part of the column of liquid was colourless or nearly so, while no deposition 

 of any solid colouring matter could be seen in the bulb or the lower part of the 

 tube. Colourless alcohol had apparently separated itself by expansion from a still 

 perfect solution left behind. 



This led to making some experiments with solutions, partly aqueous, partly 

 alcoholic, of several colloid substances, such as starch, tannin, caramel, albumen, 

 and gelatine. Each solution was placed in a flask of about half a litre capacity, 

 which was brought to near 0° C. by being surrounded with ice, filled to the mouth 

 with the solution at this temperature, and closed by a cork traversed by a glass 

 tube of small but not capillary bore (about 4 mm. interior diameter), 15 or 20 

 centimetres long, and having a glass stopcock in the middle of its length. The 

 ice having been removed the temperature of the flask and its contents was allowed 

 to rise gradually in a warm room until the head of the column of liquid in the 

 tube, originally one or two centimetres below the stopcock, had reached to about as 



