422 MB. e. B. BUCKTON ON THE ISOLATION OF THE OE6ANO-METAL3, 
These eudiometric results indicate that this gas must be either methyl or its isomer, 
hydride of ethyl, both of which .satisfy the conditions of the above experiments. I e; 
may be distinguished, however, by their different behavioui- towards chlorine gas. ^ le 
eas under examination, when exposed to diffused daylight, absorbed a large quantity o 
chlorine, and after some hours crystals of sesquichloride of carbon made their appeaiance, 
thus affording a clear proof of the gas being hydride of ethyl. ^ ^ 
A comparison of the first and last samples of gas taken for analysis, snows that 
raffo of the gases ethylene and hydride of ethyl is not constant at all phases of the 
experiment. 
First sample. 
Second sample. 
b-665 
0-654 
0-856 
0-345 
0-346 
0-144 
Fobb 
1-000 
1-000 
Ethylene 
Hydride of ethyl . . . 
1 volume 
No doubt these gases are produced by the decomposition of a double molecule of 
ethyl - yet from the circumstance that little or no gas is disengaged at ordinai-y tem- 
peratires after the spongy matter has been formed, it is probable that the grey o > 
is a double compound with sodiumethyl, or at all erents contains that body Al 
attempts to discover the real nature of this grey material have as yet fade . s com- 
ponent parts are evidently in a very unstable condition of equilibrium; for the body n 
liable to explosion, and often without an assignable cause. In one experiment, a lorn 
detonation followed the dropping of a few lumps of the substance into a.coho . n 
repeating the experiment, the entire contents of the tube, coiitaniiiig the grey mat ei 
exploded violently, and, as it were, sympathetically, leaving behind scarce y a ves ige o 
the glass. This phenomenon was perhaps caused by the detonation of t.iat por ion o 
the body which touched the alcohol, transmitting the shock through the air to t le 
The grey material loses its explosive properties after it has been cautiously, but ra icr 
strongly heated ; yet even then, after it is cold, it becomes incandescent on treely admit- 
tine- air to its surface. i - 
From these experiments it is concluded that ethyl, and doubtless me i} , m use 
oro-ano-metals is still negative to mercury, and therefore we should not suppose wit i 
Mr. Wanklyn, that mercury, copper, and platinum would displace eth) loin so lum 
ethyl The foregoing reactions would rather tend to show that sodiumeth> is oimtc 
from sodium and mercuric ethyl, and it is only by heat that that body is broken up, 
Hg C, H5+Na=Na C, lE+Hg : 
and by heat, H,+2Hg=2Hg Na+C, H.-f C, H, H. 
The mercury is not supposed to be active in the last decomposition, or in any w ay 
determine it ; but being present, it simply forms an amalgam with the liberated sodium. 
