338  Chloride  of  Mercurethyl.  { ^^SS^ 
phous  (instead  of  ordinary)  phosphorus  very  advantageous,  using 
again  absolute  alcohol.  The  latter  process  was  rendered  more  prac- 
tical in  1862  by  Reith  and  Beilstein,*  who  proposed  to  put  one  part 
of  red  phosphorus  into  five  per  cent,  of  alcohol,  spec.  grav.  0.83, 
placing  the  flask  with  the  mixture  into  cold  water,  adding  10  parts 
of  iodine,  distilling  after  24  hours,  shaking  the  distillate  with  soda 
solution,  and  removing  the  oily  liquid  which  is  rendered  anhydrous 
and  rectified.  Lieben  communicated,  in  1868,  to  the  Vienna  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences,  his  observations  that  the  chlorides  of  the  alcohol 
radicals  are  converted  into  the  iodides  on  being  heated  to  about  130° 
C,  with  an  excess  of  concentrated  hydriodic  acid.  Wanklynf  and  De 
VrijJ  have  simplified  the  preparation  of  iodide  of  ethyl  very  much 
by  using  absolute  alcohol,  to  which  a  little  more  than  one  molecular 
weight  of  iodide  of  potassium  is  added,  after  which  dry  hydrochloric 
acid  gas  is  pnssed  into  the  liquid  ;  or  the  hydrochloric  acid  is  first 
passed  into  the  alcohol  and  sufficient  iodide  of  potassium  added  after- 
wards ;  after  24  hours  the  mixture  is  distilled,  the  iodide  of  ethyl  sep- 
arated by  water  and  purified  by  washing,  drying  and  rectifying. 
Iodide  of  ethyl  is  a  colorless  oily  liquid  of  1.93  spec.  grav.  at  15° 
0.  (60°  F.),  of  a  strong  and  peculiar  odor,  and  boiling  at  about  70° 
C.  (158°  F.)  When  digested  with  mercury  or  some  other  metals, 
ethyl  compounds  of  the  metals  are  obtained.  In  this  manner  and 
by  taking  advantage  of  the  influence  of  diffused  light,  Strecker  pre- 
pares the  iodide  of  mercurethyl,  recrystallizing  the  product  from  al- 
coholic ether.  It  forms  then  colorless  iridescent  scales,  subliming 
at  the  temperature  of  boiling  water,  fusing  at  a  higher  temperature, 
of  an  unpleasant  odor,  and  being  decomposed  by  direct  sunlight 
finally  into  mercuric  iodide  ;  its  composition  is  C4H5HgI.  If  its  al- 
coholic solution  is  precipitated  by  nitrate  of  silver  and  the  filtrate 
carefully  evaporated,  crystals  or  a  crystalline  mass  of  nitrate  of  mer- 
curethyl are  obtained,  which  is  readily  soluble  in  water  and  almost 
as  freely  in  alcohol. 
This  nitrate  is  easily  converted  into  the  chloride  by  adding  to  the 
aqueous  solution  of  the  former,  muriatic  acid  or  chloride  of  sodium, 
nitric  acid,  or  in  the  latter  case  nitrate  of  sodium  being  separated  in 
the  aqueous  solution. 
Chloride  of  mercurethyl  has  the  composition  of  C4H5HgCi  ;  it 
*  Ann.  d.  Chem.  und  Pharra.,  cxxvi,  250. 
Polyt.  Centralbl.  1867,  675.  X  N.  Jahrb.  f.  Phann.  xxxi,  169. 
