MM. Léwig and Scholz on a new Sulphur Compound. 125 
Butlerow* has investigated the action of ammoniacal gas on 
dioxymethylene+: these substances act on each other with great 
energy, and the mixture becomes ultimately converted into a 
magma of granular crystals, which, when purified, present the 
appearance of colourless, transparent, lustrous rhombohedra. 
This body can be sublimed when heated slowly. It has distinctly 
basic properties; it forms with hydrochloric acid a compound 
which crystallizes in long prismatic needles. The composition 
of the base is C° H!? N4, and its hydrochlorate is €° H!* N* HCL. 
2(€ H?) N 
He considers that it has the rational formula 2(¢ H’) N +N, de- 
2(C H?) N 
rived from the type NH°, in which three atoms of hydrogen are 
replaced by three atoms of dimethylenammonium. He names 
it hexamethylenamine. Its nearest congener is Debus’s glycosine. 
Like that body, Butlerow’s new base is formed with elimina- 
tion of water, according to the equation 
3C? H*O?44NH3=€o H!? N44 6H? 0. 
Butlerow has also found that diacetate of methylglycol, when 
heated with an excess of water in a sealed tube, is converted into 
dioxymethylene and free acetic acid. 
The amalgam of sodium and mercury, obtained by adding 
sodium in small quantities to mercury, is very convenient for 
applying sodium in many reactions ; in most cases it simply acts 
by dividing the sodium and increasing its surface. 
Lowig and Scholzt have investigated the action of this amal- 
gam on a mixture of sulphide of carbon and iodide of ethyle. 
A very brisk reaction took place, and the vessel in which it was 
effected required cooling; the product was then treated with 
ether, which dissolved out a new body, as well as the excess of 
iodide of ethyle and bisulphide of carbon. The etherial solution, 
mixed with water, was distilled in the water-bath to drive off the 
ether, the excess of iodide of ethyle, and of the bisulphide of 
carbon ; on cooling, the new body collected under water in the 
form of a yellow oil with a penetrating alliaceous odour. When 
this was fractionally distilled, it was found to consist principally 
of mercaptan, and of a new body which boiled at 188°, the ana- 
lysis of which led to the composition C°H°S*%. It is formed 
thus :— 
C+ H®1T+C28*+2Na=C® H® S?+Nal+NaS8. 
It is a sulphur-yellow liquid, very fluid, and highly refracting. 
* Bulletin de la Société Chimique, p. 221. 
+ Phil. Mag. vol. xvii. p. 287. . 
{ Journal fiir Prakt. Chemie, vol. lxxix. p. 441. 
