On the Classification of Carbon-Compounds. 
319 
products of a methyl group of the underlying hydro-carbon, 
^ > which is further hydrolysed to the free 
acid or ammonium salt of the acid as indicated above.* 
i ■/ 
Among the oxygen derivatives carbon dioxide, C^q, meta 
^O—H 
carbonic acid, C = 0 H ’ an ^ ortho-carbonic acid, C(OH) 4 , oc¬ 
cupied a singular position. The first two named are the com¬ 
plete and partial anhydride respectively, of tetra-hydroxy carbon. 
* To illustrate more fully the relation between acids and corresponding nitriles as tri¬ 
substitution products of the same hydro-carbon, the following example may be added: 
Chloroform, a tri-chlorine substitution product of methane, when heated with potash 
solution yields potassium formate. The mechanism of the reaction can be explained by 
the following equation: 
H H 
C14-KjOH 
Cl+KjOH 
ci+kIoh 
= 3KCi+C 
/on 
\0 !H 
OH 
=c-oh+h 2 o. 
Aqueous ammonia, or ammonium hydroxide, acts like potassium hydroxide; alcoholic 
ammonia, however, produces hydrogen cyanide, its ammonium salt respectively. Why 
the mechanism of the reaction in this case should not be explained in an analogous man¬ 
ner is difficult to understand. (Compare explanation of the two reactions, Meyer & 
Jacobsen, “ Lehrbuch der Organischen Chemie,” I, 539.) 
H 
C JC1±H 
C ^-!C 14 -H 
IcTTh 
H 
NH 2 
nh 2 
nh 2 
H 
c ^ n §; + 3HG1 ; 
x nh 2 
C 
^!NH 2 
jH 
^N: 
:NH 8 
+2NH 3 . 
The proof that intermediate compounds are formed, i, e., such in which not all possible 
ammonia molecules are split off, may add to the probability of the above equation: 
NO, 
y^Cl ' 
^C1 
X C1 
/NH 3 
-f-aq. NH 3 =C=NH 
\nh 2 
+3H C 1-fH N O 3 
Chloro picrin. 
Guanidine. 
/HR /NH S 
C^;Xg-|-aq.NH s =C=NH' etc. 
n 8 r 
Otho carbonic 
acid ester. 
Guanidine. 
