H. B. Hill—Ethers of Uric Acid. 437 
no melting point, but the description given corresponds per- 
fectly with the substance I have obtained ; the only difference 
being that I find the substance quite readily soluble in ether, 
whereas he gives it as somewhat soluble only. 
Although I must postpone all discussion of the structure of 
uric acid until the investigation upon which I am at present 
engaged is farther advanced, I may perhaps be pardoned if I 
consider briefly the structure of urea which must of necessity 
form the foundation of any formula of uric acid. It certainly 
would not have occurred to me that any such consideration of 
its structure were necessary had not Professor Mallet in his 
recent paper on uric acid and its derivatives in this Journal,* 
adopted the formula C N H, which was proposed several years 
OH 
ago at about the same time by Wanklyn and Gamgeet and 
Gibbs Professor Mallet hardly discusses in his paper the 
facts bearing upon its structure, but contents himself with 
pointing out the simplicity which he believes this formula will 
give to its complex derivatives,—a style of argument service- 
able enough, where there is little or no choice upon other 
grounds, but certainly not to be trasted, if opposed by direct 
synthetic reactions, 
he facts remain, as far as I know, essentially as they were 
when the whole matter was reviewed by Heintz.§ Basarow| 
proved in Kolbe’s laboratory the formation of urea from am- 
monic carbonate and carbamate. Natanson{ showed that it 
was formed by the action of ammonia upon carbonyl chloride 
and no formula but coNH. can explain these reactions with- 
NH, 
out the gratuitous resort to molecular rearrangement. Very 
recently the reaction with carbonyl chloride has been em- 
ployed by Michler++ in the formation of fourfold substituted 
Ureas ; COI +N =con ete): +2HCl, leaving no 
. doubt of the symmetrical distribution of the hydrogen 
10 ure 
Against these syntheses but two facts have been urged: 
_ {This Journal, Mt Chem. Soc., IT, vi, 25. 
™: arch, 1876, p. 185. Journ. Chem. 50c., 11, 
This Journal, Nov., 1868, p. 289. ‘Ann. Chem. Pharm., cl, 67. re 
Zeitschr. fi ., 1868, 204. Ann, Chem. Pharm. xovili, 287. 
Ann. Chem. Pharm., ci, 342. ++ Berichte Deutsch Chem. Gessell., vii, 
Au. Jour. Sct.—Turep Series, Vor. XI, No. 72.—Dze., 1876. 
ee «| : 
