M. Fittig on Phenyle Compounds. 219 



cooling, the mass solidifies to a thick crystalline magma, which 

 is filtered through gun-cotton, and, when purified, is obtained in 

 long colourless needles melting at 213°. This is dinitrophenyle, 



r±6 U4 ]sjn2 r • When an alcoholic solution of this substance is 



treated with sulphuretted hydrogen, a red liquid is obtained 

 containing two bases, Amidonitrophenyle and Diamidophenyle, 

 the quantity of which depends on the extent to which the action 

 of sulphuretted hydrogen has been carried : if this has been con- 

 tinued for a long time, the latter compound is almost exclusively 

 obtained ; but if sulphuretted hydrogen has only been passed 

 into the cold liquid until it has dissolved up clear, the former 

 compound is obtained. They may be separated by using their 

 different solubility in water, as diamidophenyle only is soluble in 

 hot water ; or it may be precipitated from the solution as sul- 

 phate by the addition of dilute sulphuric acid. 



Q 6 H 4 f N H 2 ) 1 

 Amidonitrophenyle, ,, 6 jt 4 v r\J r, when crystallized from 



alcohol, forms small red acicular crystals which melt at 160°, 

 and at a higher temperature volatilize under partial decomposi- 

 tion. It is almost entirely insoluble both in hot and cold water, 

 but readily so in alcohol. It does not combine with acids, but 

 its hydrochloric solution yields, when precipitated by bichloride 

 of platinum, a very unstable platinum-salt. 



Diamidophenyle, p 6 u4 )aj tt2\ r , is a base, and has the same 



composition as Zinin's benzidine, € 12 H 12 N 2 ; and a comparison 

 of the properties of the free base, as well as of its well-defined 

 sulphate and oxalate, left no doubt as to its identity with that 

 substance. 



If, in the above preparation of dinitrophenyle, the acid solu- 

 tion filtered off from the crystalline magma is treated with water, 

 a semisolid mass is separated, which by repeated crystallization 

 from alcohol may be separated into a fluid mass, which is nitro- 

 benzole, and into a crystalline substance. When purified by 

 repeated crystallization from alcohol, this is obtained in brilliant, 

 hard, brittle prisms an inch in length, which have not the least 

 resemblance with dinitrophenyle, from which the body also 

 differs by melting at 93 0, 5 ; that is, more than 100 degrees 

 lower. Yet this compound has the same composition as dinitro- 

 phenyle, and the two bodies are therefore isomeric; Fittig 

 names it isodinitropheinjle. The two bodies appear to be 

 always produced at the same time ; but the conditions of their 

 formation have not been ascertained. They are probably deri- 

 vatives of two isomeric hydrocarbons, which by a transposition 

 of their atoms readily pass into one another. 



