Mr. A. Williamson's Theory of JEtherificaiion, 351 



to have obtained a product containing twice as much oxygen 

 as aether does. The alternative was evident ; for having ob- 

 tained aether by substituting C 2 H 5 for H in alcohol, the rela- 

 tive composition of the two bodies is represented by expressing 



C 2 H 5 

 that fact in our formula. Thus alcohol is u O, and the 



C 2 H 5 

 potassium compound is rr O ; and by acting upon this by 



iodide of aethyle, we have 



r 2 H 5 r 2 H 5 



■* k + C*H 5 I=:IK+£ 2 £ 5 0. 



Of course the proportion between the two bodies is the only 

 point upon which I here enter, and the same reasoning would 

 be applicable to any multiple of the formulae assumed. Some 

 chemists may perhaps prefer doubling them in order to avoid 

 the use of atoms of hydrogen, potassium, &c. ; but I have not 

 felt myself justified in doing so, because that would involve 

 doubling the usual formula for water; for, as I will presently 

 show, water is formed in aetherification by replacing the car- 

 buretted hydrogen of alcohol by hydrogen, which, of course, 

 obliges us to assume the same unity of oxygen in both. Alcohol 

 is therefore water in which half the hydrogen is replaced by 

 carburetted hydrogen, and aether is water in which both atoms 

 of hydrogen are replaced by carburetted hydrogen : thus, 



H C 2 H* C 2 H* 



This formation of aether might however be explained after 

 a fashion by the other theory — by supposing the potassium 

 compound to contain aether and potash, which separate during 

 the action of the iodide of aethyle ; so that half the aether ob- 

 tained would have been contained in that compound, and the 

 other half formed by double decomposition between potash 

 and iodide of aethyle : thus — 



C4 ^°q + C 4 H 10 I 2 =2IK + 2(C 4 H 10 O). 



But although the insufficiency of this explanation becomes 

 evident on a little reflection, I devised a further and more tan- 

 gible method of arriving at a conclusion. It consisted in act- 

 ing upon the potassium compound by iodide of methyle, in 

 which case I should, if that compound were aether and potash, 

 obtain a mixture of aether and oxide of melhyle; whereas in 

 the contrary case I should obtain a body of the composition 

 C 3 H 8 O. Now this substance I obtained, and neither aether 

 nor oxide of methyle. 



