March 26th, igo?.] PROCEEDINGS. xxix 



Ordinary Meeting, March 26th, 1907. 



Mr. Francis Nicholson, F.Z.S., in the Chair. 



The thanks of the members were voted to the donors of the 

 books upon the table. 



Mr. T. Thorp, F.R.A.S., made a short communication on 

 an apparent case of gaseous absorption caused by the action of 

 a few milligrams of radium bromide on the sides of a glass tube 

 containing the radium. 



At first there was an expansion but later on, as the glass 

 turned purple, a contraction took place to less than the original 

 volume. 



Further investigations are being made, the results of which 

 will be communicated to the Society. 



Dr. W. E. Hoyle, F.R.S.E., communicated a paper by 

 Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., of the British Museum, entitled 

 " On a Collection of Fishes, Batrachians, and Reptiles 

 made by Mr. S. A. Neave in Rhodesia, North of the 

 Zambesi, with Field Notes by the Collector." 



An account was then given of the following paper : 

 "A New Class of Organo-Metallic Compounds. 

 Trimethylplatinimethyl Hydroxide and its Salts." By 



William Jackson Pope, F.R.S., and Stanley John Peachey. 



No alkyl compounds of metals belonging to groups 1 and 8 

 of the periodic table have hitherto been described. The authors 

 find that the chlorides, or in some cases, the oxides, of iron, 

 cobalt, nickel, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium 

 and platinum, belonging to group 8, and of gold, belonging to 

 group 1, react vigorously with magnesium methyl iodide. 



Trimethylplatinimethyl iodide, (CH 3 ) 3 Pt.I, is formed by the 

 action of platinic chloride dissolved in ether upon magnesium 

 methyl iodide in ethereal benzene solution ; after treating with 

 water and extracting with benzene the benzene solution yields 



