190 PROFESSOR LETTS AND N. COLLIE ON THE 
40 grms. of freshly scraped sodium are placed in a flask of 500 cc. capacity,—fitted 
with a cork and wide glass tube placed vertically, and about 4 feet in height, to 
serve as a reversed condenser—and to it 200 grms. of xylol are added. The 
mixture is then warmed on a sand-bath until the sodium has melted. 38 grms. 
of phosphorus are cut into pieces the size of a pea, and these are placed in an 
evaporating basin containing xylol. They are then added gradually to the 
melted sodium. The first addition of the phosphorus causes a very violent 
reaction, so that care is necessary to prevent the xylol from boiling over. As 
soon as the xylol boils, the cork with its tube to serve as condenser is fitted into 
the flask, and the reaction allowed to proceed until the boiling ceases. More 
phosphorus is then added, and the flask well shaken after each addition. It is 
not necessary to heat the mixture, as the temperature remains sufficiently high 
to keep the reaction in progress to the end. The resulting product is a granular 
black powder, which is completely prevented from change by the xylol which 
surrounds it. We have kept a loosely corked flask containing it for upwards 
of six months without noticing that it had suffered change. But the slightest 
trace of moisture at once acts upon it, liberating spontaneously inflammable 
phosphuretted hydrogen. 
Action of Chloride of Benzyl on Phosphide of Sodium. 
Chloride of benzyl when boiled with the phosphide of sodium—prepared in 
the manner we have described—readily acts on it with the formation of common 
salt and compounds of benzyl and phosphorus. The main phosphine product 
is the chloride of tetrabenzyl-phosphonium, which may be obtained in large 
quantities by this method, and is easily isolated from the products of the re- 
action. Other phosphorised bodies are, however, formed in considerable 
quantity, the nature of which we shall discuss later. 
As we have before stated, careful attention must be paid to the preparation 
of the phosphide of sodium, otherwise, as we have often observed, no chloride 
of the phosphonium results, although the whole of the phosphide of sodium may 
be acted on. On the other hand, the phosphide sometimes remains unacted on, 
or the reaction takes five or six times longer than is necessary in a properly 
conducted experiment. A very important condition of success is the right pro- 
portion of xylol employed in the preparation of the phosphide of sodium. 
We have found it advisable to take an excess of this substance in the first 
place, but to distil off this excess before adding the benzyl chloride, 
With the quantities of sodium, phosphorus, and xylol mentioned already 
we distil off (in an oil bath) 170 grms., that is to say, a sufficient quantity 
to leave the phosphide of sodium almost dry, but in such a condition that 
the addition of a small quantity of benzyl-chloride may thoroughly wet 
the mass and permit of its being boiled without becoming superheated at 
the bottom. The chloride of benzyl is placed in a tap funnel, and allowed to 
