A Manual of the Chemistry of the Carbon Compounds

30 THE CHEMISTRY OF
acetic add being formed, which stands in the same relation to acetyl
chloride as alcohol does to ethyl chloride. Acetic acid contains like
alcohol the group OH, the hydrogen of which can be replaced by
ethyl, ethyl acetate being fotmed. These acetyl compounds can
therefore be represented by the following rational formulae;—
0 AOI o Acetic Acid.
C ftF } Ethyl Acetate -
C * H § J Acetyl Chloride.
The monad radical acetyl is contained in a large number of compounds
; it is derived from ethyl by the substitution of two atoms of
hydrogen by one of oxygen. The constitution of ethyl may be represented
in the following manner;—
CHS
CHa
What is now the constitution of acetyl? It may be obtained from
ethyl in three different ways; either each of the two carbon atoms
loses one atom of hydrogen, or the oxygen combines with only one of
the two carbon atoms, thus:—
/CH2 CH8 CHO
N CH CO CHj
I I I
Now all transformations of acetic acid and other acetyl compounds
show, that acetyl contains the group CHg, from which it follows that
the second formula represents the constitution of acetyl, and to
express this we may write the acetyl compounds in the foHowing
way :—
CK,. CO J 0 Aceti(J Acii CHS. CO J Ace|yl Chloride>
By taking two atoms of hydrogen out of ethane we produce ethene
CgH4. in which one carbon atom is linked to the other with two combining
units :—
CH2
CH2
This hydrocarbon combines readily with chlorine, ethene dichloride
being formed, in which the carbon atoms are linked together again as
they were in ethane:—