A Manual of the Chemistry of the Carbon Compounds

THE CARBON COMPOUNDS. 138
to stand for some time, the refreshing smell of hock-vinegar being
due to an admixture of this ether.
Sodium has a very peculiar action upon the acetates of methyl and
ethyl. As far as this very complicated reaction has "been studied, the
first stage is that in the methyl group of acetyl one atom of hydrogen
after the other is substituted by sodium; but little or no hydrogeu is
set free, probably because it acts in the nascent state upon some of
the acetyl. The sodium compounds thus formed are again, acted
upon by the excess of the acetic ethers, the product of the reaction
consisting of a white solid, from which two crystallinic compounds
have been isolated, which have been formed according to the following
equations :—
(1) CHS
CHS
(JO.OCEL CO
. a | + NaO.CH,
CHNa,, CHNa
C0.0CH8
(2) CH3 CH3
CO.
CHNaa
CO.
CO.OCH,
CHS
CO
I + NaO.C,H6
CF" CHFa
OO.OCaH6
Qn adding a dilute acid to the first of these bodies, sodium is replaced
by hydrogen, and a liquid boiling at 170° is obtained, which has been
called methyl-diaceUc add, although the body ia not an acid, but the
methyl ether of an acid which is not known in the free state and
which has been called acdow-eavbonie acid.
This ether, ns well as the sodium compound, yield, when heated
with, water, carbon dioxide, methyl alcohol, wad acetone (dimethylketone):—•
CH-
I CHS
CO I
I +H2O= CO +HO.CH8
i,
U00CH3
The compound obtained from ethyl acetate yields under the same
circumstances ethylacetont'Carbonate (ethyl-diacetic acid), which boils