II. On a new series of sulphuretted acids

Adopting the idea that the series of organic compounds of which sulphuretted hydrogen is the type, corresponds in every respect with the series of which water is the type, I concluded that not only mercaptans and neutral sulphides which correspond to the alcohols and ethers, but also compounds corre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: The Royal Society 1856
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Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspl.1854.0012
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspl.1854.0012
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Summary:Adopting the idea that the series of organic compounds of which sulphuretted hydrogen is the type, corresponds in every respect with the series of which water is the type, I concluded that not only mercaptans and neutral sulphides which correspond to the alcohols and ethers, but also compounds corresponding to the acids, anhydrous acids and ethers of acids might be produced; I therefore endeavoured to obtain reactions which would enable me to replace oxygen in the compounds of the latter series by sulphur. Such reactions are produced by the compounds of sulphur with phosphorus—the tersulphide (P 2 S 3 ) and the pentasulphide (P 2 S 5 )—which are easily obtained by fusing together amorphous phosphorus and sulphur in an atmosphere of carbonic acid; no explosion takes place, although the combination is attended with a very violent action.