326 Royal Society :— 



While the author feels no hesitation in calling hyposulphite of 

 sodium thiosulphate, a change which will be scarcely relished by 

 photographers, he has scruples about altering sulphamide into sulpha- 

 diamide, saying (p. 228), " sulphamide ought analogically to be called 

 sulphodiamide, and sulphimide sulphamide ; but the use of these two 

 words to signify the compounds expressed above is too general to 

 allow of their alteration." We confess that we have not heard or 

 seen much either of sulphamide or sulphimide ; but our chemical ex- 

 perience has been perhaps too limited. The free use, as an equiva- 

 lent notation, of dashes attached to the symbols, is an important 

 feature of the work, and has already been employed with great ad- 

 vantage by Prof. Kekule in his Lehrbuch der Organischen Chemie. 



The volume before us is characterized by a force and precision of 

 style, and by a happy originality of view, which it would require 

 long quotations properly to illustrate, and which render the work a 

 valuable contribution to English chemical literature. 



XL VI. Proceedings of Learned Societies, 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 238.] 



April 25, 1861. — Major-General Sabine, R.A., Treasurer and Vice- 

 President, in the Chair. 

 ri^HE following communication was read : — 

 -■• " On the Synthesis of Succinic and Pyrotartaric Acids." By 

 Maxwell Simpson, Esq., M.B. 



Since my last communication to the Society*, I have succeeded 

 in obtaining the cyanide of ethylene in a state of purity by a slight 

 modification of the process I have already given. A detailed account 

 of it will be found in the paper which accompanies this abstract. 



This is, I believe, the first example of a diatomic cyanide. It has 

 the following properties in addition to those I have already enume- 

 rated : — Below the temperature of 37° Cent, it is a crystalline 

 solid of a light-brown colour, above that temperature it is a fluid oil. 

 Its specific gravity at 45° Cent, is 1*023. It has an acrid dis- 

 agreeable taste. It is neutral to test-paper. It is decomposed by 

 potassium, cyanide of potassium being formed. Its solution in water 

 is not affected by nitrate of silver. Heated with nitric acid, it gives 

 succinic acid and nitrate of ammonia. Heated with muriatic acid, it 

 yields the same acid and muriate of ammonia. It forms an inter- 

 esting compound with nitrate of silver, which was obtained in the 

 following manner: — About three equivalents of crystallized nitrate 

 of silver were rubbed up in a mortar with one equivalent of pure 

 cyanide of ethylene and a considerable quantity of ether. The ether 

 was then poured off, and the residual salt dissolved in boiling alcohol. 

 On cooling, the alcohol became a mass of brilliant pearly plates. 

 Submitted to analysis, these yielded results agreeing with the for- 



* Phil. Mag. S. 4. vol. xxii. p. 66. 



