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The author was led to an extended study of the action of hyponitric anhydride upon organic bodies, by certain theoretical considerations as to the nature of the derivatives which could possibly be obtained by the operation of this powerfully oxidizing anhydrous radical upon benzine. The results having exceeded in number and importance the most sanguine expectations entertained at the outset, the investigation has been extended to a large number of bodies in the aromatic group, and in the future will be made to include as many organic substances, as will be likely to undergo change when submitted to this reagent. So far'as we have been able to discover, but few investigators have turned their attention in this direction. Guthrie found that when hyponitric anhydride is passed into a flask containing amylene and surrounded by a freezing mixture, the gas is instantly absorbed, and the amylene is gradually converted into a pasty mass of minute crystals, which may be purified by washing with cold alcohol, recrystallization from boiling ether, and drying in vacuo over sulphuric acid. Its analysis gave the formula C5H10(XO2)2, which would make it a direct combination of the monatomic radical nitrile with the radical amylene, a nitrilide of amylene* According to Semenoff,f when dry ethylene gas is passed through liquified hyponitric anhydride, or when the mixture of the two gases is heated to 60°or 70°, ethylene nitrite, C2H,(X02)2, is formed, together with an oily body. It may be obtained in a pure condition and more abundantly, by passing ethylene into anhydrous ether, liquid hyponitric anhydride being added at the same time, drop by drop, and, after the liquid has cooled, drying the crystals, which separate, between filter paper and finally over sulphuric acid. It is insoluble in water, easily soluble in alcohol and ether, and crystallizes in four-sided tables, melting at 37.5°.Finally it is stated,£ that certain nitro-derivatives have been formed by the direct action of hyponitric anhydride upon organic bodies, e. g.. mononitronaphthalene, C10H7(XO2) But more explicit

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I n the June number of the Philosophical Magazine, for 1879, I puhlished an article with the above title, and gave an abstract of three preceding papers dealing with various parts of the same subject, vir.-" Upon the titration of hydrochloric acid for chlorine, and of sulphuric and nitric acids for hyponitric acid" (1st and 2nd papers, PROCEEDINGS AMERICAS CHEMICAL SOCIETY, 2, 1878, and influence of light upon the decomposition of iodides " (JOURNAL AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, I , 1870). In the first of these papers I gave an account of the anomalous reaction which first att,racted my attention to the subject, and led me to undertake a series of laborious quantitative determinations extended over an interval of three months. This was, that on titrating very dilute Aolutions of the acids with potassium iodide (1 C.C. acid to 1000 C.C. water), no change occwrred immediately, but at the end of t w o hours an amount of iodine had been set free, corresponding to G.42 C.C. of n standard sodic hyposulphite solution, in the case of the hydrochloric acid; to 0.28 C.C. with the sulphuric acid, and to 0.24 c.c., with the nitric acid. After decolorisation with the hyposulphite, slow change again set in, and a series of titrations, beginning with October 27th, 1878, and extended to December 5th, 1878, eleven in alI, was given, showing that a constant source of change was operating upon the mixtures of very dilute acids and iodide-the summations of the changes effected during the interval being for the hydrochloric acid 1.23 c.c.,for the sulphuric acid 5.17 c.c., and for the nitric acid 2.41 C.C. This source of constant change was thought to be the diffused light of the laboratory, and in the second paper the results of testing this hypothesis, under a great variety of conditions and with many precautions as to purity of acids, iodides, etc., were detailed at length. I n the third paper, the various phenomena noted were brought into reconciliation by recognising that oxygen 200s essential to the reaction, no change whatsoever occurring either in the dark or in the strongest sunlight during several dayA exposure, in case the presence of oxygen were rigorously excluded. This observation likewise explained the real ditliculty at the root of the acrimonious controversy between Schoenbein and Fischer, Honzeau and Sauvage,* as to whether or