XIX. On a new series of organic bodies containing metals

Abstract

Under the above title I described, more than three years ago, some preliminary experiments which proved the existence of certain organic compounds highly ana­logous to cacodyl, and, like that body, consisting of a metal, or in some cases phos­phorus, associated with the groups C 2 H 3 , C 4 H 5 , C 6 H 7 , &c., and possessing, in most instances, highly remarkable powers of combination. I fixed the composition and studied some of the reactions of two of these bodies, to which the names Zincmethyl (C 2 H 3 Zn) and Zincethyl (C 4 H 5 Zn) were provisionally assigned, besides giving me­thods for procuring similar compounds containing tin, arsenic and phosphorus, by acting upon the iodides of the alcohol radicals with these elements, and expressing a belief, founded upon the similarity of functions existing between hydrogen and the groups of the form C n H (n+1) , that most, if not the whole, of the compounds con­tained in the following series might be formed; those marked thus being at that time already known. More recently Löwig and Schweitzer have commenced labouring in the same field, and have filled up one of the gaps in the foregoing table by the formation of stibethyl (Sb(C 4 H 5 )), in acting upon iodide of ethyl with an alloy of antimony and potassium; the same chemists state also the probable formation of similar compounds containing methyl and amyl in place of ethyl, and bismuth and phosphorus instead of antimony.