THE following paper contains an account of the effects produced by a considerable number of re-agents upon nitrite of amyl, nitrate of amyl, nitrate of ethyl, and nitrate of methyl. In short, we have attempted t o work out in detail a considerable portion of the chemical history of these compounds. To avoid repetition, we w i l l here state, that whenever in the following pages we speak of a digestion, we mean t o imply the heating of the substances together in a flask or retort adapted to an

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... verted condenser. Any other species of digestion will be specially indicated, We have not thought it necessary to give in full the details of the recognition of the various bodies formed by the decomposition of the substances under examination, as these products were usually of such a kind aa to render their identification a matter of great simplicity. A few of the following reactions have been previously described. As they are not always t o be found in modern hand-books, we have inserted an account of om own investigations of them, and thus, we trust, have rendered our work more complete. NITRITE OF AMYL. The nitrite employed in the following reactions was prepared by saturating amylic alcohol with nitrous acid, The product of this operation was repeatedly washed with water, and driedover ignited carbonate of potash; it was then fractionally distilled, whereby a little apparently unaltered amylic alcohol was separated, together with a very RmalT quantity of a liquid of