DE. E. FEAJSTKLAJSTD’S EESEAECHES ON OEGANO-METALLIC BODIES. 411 
crystalline form. In this way the zincethyl from a single digester-charge produced 
upwards of eight ounces of the chloride. 
About five ounces of chloride of mercurous ethyl, dried in vacuo over sulphuric acid, 
were added to four ounces of a strong ethereal solution of zincmethyl. Considerable 
heat was evolved ; and after forty-eight hours the product was distilled. It began to 
boil at 60° C. The thermometer was stationary for some time at 128°, and finally rose 
to 140° a, when a mixture of zincethyl and zincmethyl distilled over, whilst a perma- 
nent gas was at the same time evolved. The distillate was washed with weak acetic 
acid and dried over chloride of calcium. On rectification, a considerable proportion 
distilled between 127° and 137° C., and was collected apart. The last few drops came 
over at 156° C. Eepeated rectifications of the product, boiling between 127° and 137° C., 
did not serve to isolate any portion of the distillate having a fixed boiling-point ; on the 
contray, it was evident that the range of the temperatui-e of distillation became wider- 
each time the operation was repeated. A section boiling between 127° and 133° C. 
yielded, on analysis, 13-68 per cent, of carbon, whilst another section, boiling between 
141° and 143° C., gave 16-71 per cent, of carbon. The formula Hg|^" requires 14-75 
per cent, of carbon. According to Mr. Bucktox, mercuric methide bods at 96° C., and 
mercuric ethide at 159° C. ; consequently mercuric ethylomethide might be expected to 
boil at about 128° C. It is more than probable that mercuric ethylomethide was formed 
m the above reaction; but subsequent distillations gradually transformed it, .more or 
less perfectly, into a mixture of mercuric ethide and mercuric methide. 
2Hg/^" ^"1 — ^ 
tc,h, 
Hg 
C.Hg 
C.Hg. 
V. Action of Zinc wpon a Mixture of the Iodides of Ethyl and Methyl 
In a former memoir * I pointed out that the vapour-volume of zincethyl allows that 
compound to be represented by the formula ^^gjzn. This formula would be more 
firmly esteblished if we could succeed in combining zinc with two radicals of different 
composition; the iodides of methyl and ethyl, mixed with an equal volume of anhy- 
drous ether, were therefore submitted to the action of zinc at 100° C. in a copper digested 
in the hope of obtaining the body Zn,{g decomposition of 
not 
exceeding 150 , In order to prevent as far as possible the formation of any zincethyl, 
which would be more difficult than zincmethyl to separate from the intermeLe body 
latter were produced, iodide of methyl in slight excess over the equivalent quan- 
* Transactions of the Eoyal Society for 1865, p. 266. 
