Receipts and Payments of the Royal Society between December 1, 1863, and November 30, 1864. Balance at Bank, and on hand Annual Subscriptions and Compositions Rents Dividends on Stock.... Salaries, Wages, and Pension £1000 Consolidated Bank Annuities, bought at 894 Books for the Library and Binding Printing Transactions and Proceedings, Paper, Binding, Upholstery, Painting, and Miscellaneous Expenses s. d. The Scientific Catalogue Chemical Society, Proceedings, 1863-64 50 0 0 Coal and Lighting Miss Burdett Coutts-Half cost of Plates to Dr. Heer's Tea Expenses... 90 0 0 and Mr. Pengelly's Papers Fire Insurance B. Botfield, F.R.S., Bequest 70 0 0 Shipping Expenses Tea Expenses and Gas, repaid 38 9 6 Taxes Parcel Charges recovered 5 15 3 Estates and Property of the Royal Society, including Trust Funds. Estate at Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire (55 A. 2 R. 2 P.), £126 Os. Od. per annum. Estate at Acton, Middlesex (34 A. 3 R. 11 P.), £110 Os. Od. per annum. Fee farm rent in Sussex, £19 4s. per annum. One-fifth of the clear rent of an estate at Lambeth Hill, from the College of Physicians, £3 per annum. Postage, Parcels, and Petty Charges Subscriptions:-Rebuilding Acton Church 10 17 5 13 7 6 30 19 6 2 2 Mablethorpe Schools J. Oakley, Acton Inclosure Expenses 39 3 3 Smith and Oakley, Survey of Mablethorpe Estate Donation Fund. 20 17 6 60 0 0 Prof. Tyndall, Bakerian Lecture. Prof. Helmholtz, Croonian Lecture WILLIAM ALLEN MILLER, 34 16 0 2 18 3 4242 7 3 £4926 1 4 Statement of Income and Expenditure (apart from Trust Funds) during the Year ending November 30, 1864. Salaries, Wages, and Pension VOL. XIII. £ s. d. Admission Fees 150 O 0 The Scientific Catalogue.... 203 13 7 Compositions 342 0 0 Books for the Library £86 9 11 171 8 3 Rents 254 12 6 Binding ditto.. 84 18 4 Dividends on Stock (exclusive of Trust Funds) 928 5 2 on Stevenson Bequest 523 7 0 Printing Transactions, Part II. 1863, and 457 12 11 Sale of Transactions, Proceedings, &c. 403 15 3 Ditto Proceedings, Nos. 58-67 B. Botfield, F.R.S.-Bequest.... 70 0 0 Ditto Miscellaneous Chemical Society, for Proceedings, 1863-64 50 0 0 Chemical Society, Tea Expenses £14 19 5 Linnean Society, Tea Expenses. 14 19 5 Geographical Society, Gas at Evening 38 9 6 Meetings St. George's Rifles, ditto.. Parcel Charges recovered Income available for the Year ending Nov. 30, 1864. Expenditure in the Year ending Nov. 30, 1864 Paper for Transactions and Proceedings Engraving and Lithography Painting and Cleaning Upholstery, Repairs, and Miscellaneous Expenses. Coal and Lighting Subscriptions:-Rebuilding Acton Church. J. Oakley, Acton Inclosure Expenses Smith and Oakley, Survey of Mablethorpe Estate......... 188 8 0 ........... Excess of Income over Expenditure in the Year ending Nov. 30, 1864 The following Table shows the progress and present state of the Society with respect to the number of Fellows : Dr. WILLIAM ALLEN MILLER, Treasurer and Vice-President, in the Chair. It was announced from the Chair that the President had appointed the following Members of the Council to be Vice-Presidents: The Treasurer. Mr. Gassiot. Sir Henry Holland. The following communications were read: : 1. "Researches on certain Ethylphosphates." BY ARTHUR HERBERT CHURCH, M.A. Oxon., Professor of Chemistry, Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. Communicated by A. W. HOFMANN, Ph.D., LL.D. Received October 21, 1864. The constitution, properties, and derivatives of the so-called conjugated sulphurous and sulphuric acids have been made the subject of numerous researches, and have led, in the hands of Gerhardt and others, to very interesting results. I have examined at different times* several members * On the Benzole Series, Parts 1 & 2. Phil. Mag. April and June 1855. On the Spontaneous Decomposition of certain Sulphomethylates. Phil. Mag. July 1855. On the Action of Water upon certain Sulphomethylates. Phil. Mag. Jan. 1856. of the methylsulphuric, phenylsulphurous, nitrophenylsulphous and other series, but have lately turned my attention to the analogous compounds of the phosphoric series. Some remarkable substances have been thus made, their constitution seeming to have a direct bearing upon the important question of the atomicity and equivalency of certain of the metallic elements. Several substances might have served as starting-points for these new inquiries. A curious compound, phenylphosphoric acid, C, H, H, PO, was prepared; but its instability, and the oxidation to which it and its salts are liable, rendered it unsuited for the present purpose. I intend to describe in the present paper but one series of salts, formed from Pelouze's ethylphosphoric acid, C, H, H, PO,. This compound, containing two atoms of easily replaceable hydrogen, appeared admirably adapted for the purpose in view. It is readily prepared by digesting (for 48 hours) finely crushed glacial phosphoric acid with alcohol of 90 per cent. : 2 From the ethylphosphoric acid thus formed the barium salt was prepared in large quantity and of perfect purity. This compound, C, H, Ba2, PO +6H, O, is remarkable for being less soluble in boiling water than in water at 70° C., or even at 15°—a characteristic property of several other ethylphosphates. Boiling water, in fact, affects this barium salt in a peculiar manner. If to its boiling saturated solution a quantity of the ordinary crystallized salt be added, the crystals instantly assume a pearly aspect, and are found, after having been filtered off, washed once with boiling water, and dried in vacuo over sulphuric acid, to have lost 5 H2O, and thus to have the formula C2 H, Ba2, PO+Aq. 2 They thus contain the proportion of water found in the majority of the ethylphosphates. When, on the other hand, cold water is poured on these crystals, or on the salt dried at 100°, the lost water is regained, the nacreous aspect of the dried salt disappears, while a great increase in its bulk occurs. From the barium salt the lead and silver compounds are readily made. To a solution of ethylphosphate of barium nearly saturated at 70°, acetate of lead or nitrate of silver is added in slight excess, the liquid allowed to cool and then filtered. The collected precipitate is to be washed with cold water. The lead salt may be obtained anhydrous by heating it to 130°-150°: it is almost insoluble in cold water, but is slightly soluble in hot water, from which it may be crystallized. The silver salt dissolves to some extent in hot water, and separates in pearly plates as the liquid cools. It is blackened, especially when moist, on exposure to daylight. Dried in *The following are the atomic weights adopted :-C=12, O=16, Hg=200; I have provisionally retained for Ag, Ba, Pb, &c. the lower atomic weights till lately in general use. the water-oven, it retains one atom of water of crystallization, and has the formula C, H, Ag, PO,+Aq. It was chiefly by double decomposition with the barium, lead, and silver salts that the compounds presently to be described were formed. The perfect purity of the substances used was established by rigorous experiment; a silver-determination, for instance, in the argentic ethylphosphate used in many of the reactions to be detailed further on, gave the following numbers: 10-27 grains of the salt dried at 100° C. gave 8-22 grains of Ag Cl. This result corresponds to 60-24 per cent of Ag, while the percentage required by the formula C, H,, Ag,, PO+Aq is 60-33. The other analyses were equally satisfactory. I give, in the present communication, a selection of the most interesting of the numerous results obtained during the course of my experimental inquiry. Many points of departure for other researches have occurredthe investigation, for example, of the products, volatile and fixed, of the destructive distillation of the ethylphosphates, and the determination of the varying amount of water of crystallization in several of the salts prepared. I may cite the barium salts as illustrations. Not only do the salts already mentioned exist, namely one containing 6 Aq and the other 1 Aq, but a third compound may be obtained by evaporating at about 50° or 60° C. a saturated solution of the ordinary barium salt, and filtering off the deposited crystals rapidly. The slender pearly plates thus formed are perfectly definite and constant in composition; they probably consist of equal equivalents of the two former salts. Analysis gave the following numbers :— 7.04 grains gave 5.01 grains of Ba, SO. 12.88 grains lost at 130° C. 2.5 grains of H, O. These results correspond to 41.85 per cent. of Ba, and 19-407 per cent. of H, O; the formula 2 (C, H, Ba, PO)+7 Aq demands 42.28 per cent. of Ba, and 19.44 per cent. of H, O. Ferric Ethylphosphate.-Equivalent proportions of argentic ethylphosphate and pure crystallized anhydrous ferric chloride were weighed out. The silver salt was mixed with some quantity of hot water, and the ferric chloride, previously dissolved in hot water, then added, the liquid being kept warm for some time. On filtering, a pale yellow liquid was obtained which contained no silver, and the merest trace of chlorine. On heating this liquid to the boiling-point, pale straw-yellow films separated from it: a quantity of these was collected, washed with cold water and with alcohol, and, after having been dried in the water-oven, analyzed with the following results : I. 6115 grm. of the ferric salt gave on combustion with chromate of 294 grm. of Mg, P, O,. V. 1.317 grm. lost at 150° C. 134 grm. of H, O. 2 |