a 
ACTION OF PHOSPHIDE OF SODIUM ON HALOID ETHERS. 215 
nitric acid and chlorate of potash; and molybdate of ammonia showed that 
phosphoric acid was also present in the substance thus oxidised. No chloro- 
platinate could be obtained, but on mixing alcoholic solutions of the substance 
and of chloride of platinum a black precipitate was produced, consisting either 
of reduced platinum or of its sulphide. 
The substance was burnt with chromate of lead and oxide of copper, and 
gave numbers agreeing with those required for the sulphide of tribenzyl- 
phosphine. 
0:3567 gave 1:0097 CO, = 0:27587 C = 74:4 per cent. 
- 03567 ,, 0:2114 H,O = 0:02348H= 66 
» 
Calculated for 
Obtained. (C,H,), PS. 
Carbon, , F 744, ; ; , f 75:0 
Hydrogen, . : Gh. 3 P ; 6:2 
The compound was not further examined. 
Action of Heat on the Hydrate.—From the experiments described at p. 196 
on the action of caustic baryta on the acid sulphate, we were led to think that 
the latter would easily split up into toluol and oxide of tribenzyl-phosphine, 
and we therefore determined to ascertain if this supposition were correct. 
A quantity of the hydrate crystallised from alcohol was placed in a distilling 
flask and heated in an oil bath. The alcohol of crystallisation first passed off, 
and at 250° C. the compound melted, and immediately a colourless liquid began 
to distil, which ceased to pass over at 260° C. The liquid was redistilled and 
boiled constantly at 111°-112° C. It consisted therefore of toluol. 
The residue in the distilling flask crystallised on cooling, was insoluble in 
water (whereas the hydrate readily dissolves), but was soluble in alcohol, and 
crystallised in the characteristic form of the oxide. Its melting point was 
found to be 212° C., and it gave the characteristic brominated compound and 
chloroplatinate of the oxide. 
The decomposition which the hydrate suffers when heated may therefore be 
expressed by the equation— 
(C,H,),P(OH) =(C,H,),P0 + C,Hg. 
Action of Heat on Oxide of Tribenzyl-Phosphine.—The oxide partly volatilises 
unchanged when it is heated, and partly decomposes into toluol, free phosphorus, 
charred matters, and other substances obtained in too small quantity to be 
investigated. 
