W. Gibbs on the action of Alkaline nitrites, ete. 215 
Art. XXIII.—Contributions to Chemistry from the Labora- 
tory of the Lawrence Scientific School. No. 8.—On the 
action of the alkaline nitrites upon uric acid and its deriv- 
atives; by Wo.corr Gipss, M.D., Rumford Professor in 
Harvard University. 
[Read before the National Academy of Sciences, April 15th, 1869.] 
Tue products of the action of nitrous acid upon the members 
. of the uric acid group have been little examined. Baeyer has 
shown that hydurilic acid by the action of potassic nitrite 
yields alloxan and potassic violurate, the equation expressing 
the decomposition being as follows : 
©,H.N,O,4+KNO,+2HNO, = €,H,KN,9,+6,H,N,O,+ 
2NO+H,0 
The nitrous acid in this case exerts an oxydizing action and is 
reduced to nitric oxyd. The action of nitrous acid upon urea 
has long been familiar to chemists, but, so far as I have been 
able to find, urea and hydurilic acid are the only members of 
the uric acid group the relations of which to the nitrites may 
considered as known. I have undertaken in some measure at 
least to supply this deficiency in our knowledge and present the 
ollowing as the result of my work. 
ric acid was diffused in cold water and a current of the red 
gas resulting from the action of nitric acid upon starch or saw- 
dust passed into the liquid ; effervescence almost at once com- 
menced and after a time the acid was wholly dissolved. On 
evaporation the liquid yielded an abundance of yellowish crys- 
tals together with a small quantity of a brick red insoluble 
substance. The crystals were easily purified by solution, treat- 
ment with animal charcoal and recrystallization. They were 
then perfectly colorless, but became slightly pink on drying and 
Possessed all the properties of parabanic acid, On analysis 
10358 gr. gave 0-1790 gr. water and 1-2103 gr. carbonic acid, 
» Corresponding to 31:86 per cent of carbon and 1°91 per cent 
of hydrogen. 
The formula €3H,N,6, requires carbon 31°58, hydrogen 1°75 ; 
the substance analyzed was therefore parabanic acid. With 
ammonia it yielded ammonic oxalurate, easily recognized from 
its characteristic properties. The red matter mixed with the 
parabanic acid dissolved in a very large quantity of water to 
a Orange yellow liquid which, on cooling, deposited a reddish 
Tn a second experiment alloxan and alloxantin were detect 
