MOLECULAR CONSTITUTION OF THE ORGANIC BASES. 
395 
the new iodide thus produced is capable of exchanging its iodine for oxygen without 
the newly-formed oxide suffering immediate decomposition, as is the case with 
oxide of ammonium. On the contrary, we find this new oxide endowed with remark- 
able stability ; although under the influence of heat it is liable to the same change 
which befalls the oxide of ammonium, its corresponding ammonia being reproduced. 
Here then, in the decomposition of iodide of triethylammonium by metallic oxides, 
we are obliged by irresistible evidence to acknowledge those very two stages, the 
assumption of which in the analogous change of iodide of ammonium appeared to 
us deficient in simplicity and probability. 
The conception of ammonium does not in any way imply the notion that the differ- 
ent hydrogen-atoms united with nitrogen in the molecule of the compound metal, 
retain their position in the molecular system with equal persistency. We are forced 
by unequivocal facts to admit that the fourth atom of hydrogen is in a peculiar state 
of mobility, and it is on the facility with which this fourth atom is dislodged from its 
position that one of the foundations of the ammonia-theory rests. In the compound 
ammoniums the mobility of the fourth atom of hydrogen, or the hydrocarbon re- 
placing it, still prevails, although less so than in the type itself. The decomposition 
of the ammonium-bases under the influence of heat is particularly instructive in this 
respect ; oxide of tetrethylammonium loses the fourth equivalent of ethyl in the form 
of olefiant gas and water ; and this deportment might be graphically indicated by 
writing the formula of this compound in accordance with the ammonia-theory, namely, 
thus — 
c, H5 In, C4 H5 o. 
C4 hJ 
The iodide accordingly would be represented by the formula 
C4 
C4 H5 In, C4 H5 1 , 
C4HJ 
an expression which is moreover in perfect harmony with the mode in which this 
compound is produced, namely, by the direct union of iodide of ethyl with triethyl- 
amine. 
But now we combine the triethylamine with iodide of amyl, whereby the iodide 
C4 H, 
C4H5 
^N, C40 H44 I 
C4 H5J 
is formed, which, as we have seen in the preceding pages, may be converted without 
difficulty into the corresponding oxide ; this oxide however cannot possibly be con- 
sidered as 
C4 
C4 H5 p, C40 Hu o, 
C4 Hj 
