On the Replacement of Alcoholic Radicals. 39 
—— for the water would have acted upon the ether, setting free 
n equivalen t of acid, which would have combin ed with 
aleohol, setting water free again, so that the raineiae of the acid 
m one alcoholic radical to another might have been wholly 
independent of the reaction we were studying; each of the 
tubes, after having been heated, was therefore examined wit 
very sensitive litmus paper, which was left in the liquid several 
minutes. In no case was there a trace of acid reaction observed. 
If we refer to these experiments for an answer to the ques- 
tions proposed at the beginning of the memoir, we find: 1st. 
That the reaction si we have considered takes place, at a 
temperature in the neighborhood of 250° C., between an alcohol 
and the ether of an acid, or between two ethers of acids, and 
so, that a similar decomposition takes place when the mixed 
ether of a polybasic acid is heated by itself. That it does not 
take place at all, or only with great difficulty, when the ethers 
(oxyds) of alcoholic radicals are heated with one another. That 
the reaction takes place most readily with those ethers that are 
most easily decomposed by water and other reagents. 2d. That 
the character of the reaction indicates that it is not dependent 
upon élective affinity, but simply on a tendency of each radical 
to unite with all the others a and thus to form the great- 
, 2 pce ap and characteristic property of organic bodies fre- 
que ntly aids in rendering a separation of this nature easy, 
namely, the i ee with which they a tab go Papen 
changes. us, the mixed oxalate of ethyl and amyl can be 
eAsined, by a single distillation, in a state of approximateey 
* Gladstone, Journ. Chem. Soc., xv, 302. oe Boe 
