600 ACTION OF HEAT ON COMPOUNDS OF DIMETHYL-THETINE, 






group, leaving a complete methyl group, which remains attached to the 
sulphur— 
—CH,—C00H, =-—CH, + CO,. 
No doubt the other saits of dimethyl- and other thetines would suffer — 
similar changes,—the hydracid salts probably the first, the oxyacid salts the 
second. The decomposition of the nitrate would probably not be so simple 
and would give rise to oxidation products. Whether both kinds of decomposi- 
tion can occur with the same salt has not as yet been ascertained in the case 
of the hydrobromate,* but certainly does not occur to any appreciable exten 
with the other two salts experimented on. 
* The disengagement of hydrobromic acid in considerable quantity, before alluded to as occurring 
when this salt is heated, points to a different decomposition from either of these, the nature of which 
I have not as yet ascertained. A disengagement of hydrobromic acid also occurs when bromacetic acid 
is heated with sulphide of ethylene. Perhaps the reaction is similar in both cases. 
