ee a ee ee eee ee ee CE ee et OE 
Alkaline nitrites upon Urie acid. 225 
from it possessed the characteristic properties of oxaluric acid. 
The corresponding sodium salt was also analyzed. 0:5729 gr. 
salt dried at 100° C. gave 0°1171 gr. water and 0°4910 gr. car- 
bonic acid = 23:37 per cent carbon and 2°26 per cent hydrogen. 
The formula €,H,NaN,©, requires carbon 23°37, hydrogen 
1:94 per cent. 
From this result it appears that, in the presence of the alka- 
line salt, the parabanic acid simply unites with the elements of 
water to form oxaluricacid. It is not easy to say whether the 
decomposition which occasions the effervescence observed is due 
to the direct oxydation of one portion of the parabanic acid or to 
that of the oxaluric acid formed. In several experiments I have 
observed that when parabanic acid is boiled for some time with 
potassic nitrite but without acetic acid, a very distinct odor like 
that of formic acid is observed. Only oxalic acid is found 
among the liquid products of the reaction when the boiling is 
long continued, and the actual quantity of acid vapor is ve 
small. It seems probable that a small portion of the parabanic 
acid is decomposed in accordance with the equation : 
€,H,N,©, +N,0, = €H,8, +260, +4N, 
but further investigations must decide this point. 
A hot solution of parabanic acid in presence of free sulphuric 
acid is readily oxydized by potassic hypermanganate. _ In three 
experiments, 114 milligrams of parabanic acid required 53°3, 
33, 53°5 c. c. of a solution of the hypermanganate, of which 
53°6 c. c. contained 16 milligrams of available oxygen. This is 
exactly one atom of oxygen for one molecule of paraban. The 
oxydizing action of the hypermanganate is probably represented 
_ by the equation 
antin, and generally to all bodies belonging to the uric acid 
