Experiments in the Methyle- and in the Methylene- Series. 389 



rate iu vessels filled with carbonic acid and subsequently sealed before 

 the blowpipe. After digestion for a short time at 100°, the mixture 

 of the two liquids solidifies to a hard, dazzling, white, crystalline mass 

 containing the two bromides, 



C 3 H 13 P Br 2 == [(C a H 4 Br) (C H 3 ) 3 P] Br, 



C 8 H 22 P 2 Br 2 = [(C 2 H 4 )" <P |a)a P J " Bl . 2) 



one or the other predominating according to the proportions in which 

 the two bodies were allowed to act upon one another. 



It was not difficult to establish the nature of these two compounds 

 by numbers. 



The solution of the saline mass in absolute alcohol, deposits, on 

 cooling, beautiful prismatic crystals, consisting of the bromide of 

 bromethyl-trimethylphosphonium almost chemically pure, while the 

 diphosphonium-bromide remains in solution. The nature of the 

 monophosphonium-compound was fixed by a bromine determination 

 in the bromide, and by the analysis of a platinum-salt beautifully 

 crystallized in needles containing 



C 5 H 13 Br P PtCl 3 = [(C 2 H 4 Br)(C H 3 ) 3 P] CI, PtCl 2 . 

 Treatment of this platinum-salt with sulphuretted hydrogen yielded 

 an extremely soluble and deliquescent chloride, which was not ana- 

 lysed, but submitted to the action of oxide of silver, when it furnished 

 the oxide of the corresponding oxethylated compound 



C.H r PO,= KC 2 H 5 0)(CH 3 ) 3 P]| 



o 10 - H i yj. 



The caustic liquid was converted by hydrochloric acid into the 

 easily soluble chloride corresponding to the oxide ; and this chloride, 

 when treated with dichloride of platinum, deposited the platinum- 

 salt of the oxethylated trimethylphosphonium in well-formed octa- 

 hedra extremely soluble in water, containing 



C, H u P O PtCl 3 = [(C 2 H 5 0)(C H 3 ) 3 P]C1, PtCl 2 . 



Salts of Hexmethylated Ethylene-diphosphonium. 

 Bibromide. — The preparation of this salt has already been men- 

 tioned. It is extremely soluble in water, and even in absolute alcohol, 

 insoluble in ether. In vacuo over sulphuric acid it solidifies into a 

 mass of acicular crystals, which are exceedingly deliquescent. 



The dibromide, created with oxide of silver, yields the correspond- 

 ing dioxide, 



C 8 H ai P a O 2 =t(C 2 H 4 )"(CB0 6 P 2 ]"| 



H 2 J -' 

 which forms with acids a series of salts resembling the corresponding 

 ethyle-compounds. Of these I have prepared only the 



Di-iodide, which crystallizes in difficultly soluble needles of the 

 composition 



