XVIII. On a new series of bodies in which nitrogen is substituted for hydrogen

In some former papers* I have had occasion to describe a peculiar class of nitrogen-compounds, obtained by the action of nitrous acid upon amido-compounds, by the exchange of some of the hydrogen of the latter for the nitrogen of the nitrous acid. This substitution may be effected in two different ways ; accordingly every amido-compound may give rise to two distinctly different series of bodies. By viewing the amido-compounds as constructed according to the general formula Cx Hy - 2 (N H3)" Oz, the changes may be expressed as follows: — I. 2[Cx Hy - 2(N H3)"Oz] + NH O2 = C2x H2(y-2) (N H3)" (N2)"O2x + 2H2O. II. Cx Hy - 2 (N H3)" Oz + NHO2 = CxH(y - 2) (N2)O"z + 2H2O. In the first equation one atom of nitrogen is substituted for three atoms of hydrogen contained in two atoms of the amido-compound, but in the second the substitution affects only one atom of the latter. I have hitherto directed my attention more particularly to the members of the first group, whether derived from amido-acids (such as diazo-amido-benzoic acid), or whether corresponding to amido-bases (diazo-amidobenzol). The bodies which I now shall have to describe in this communication are derived according to the second of the above general equations, and I have restricted myself almost entirely to the study of those which can thus he obtained from aniline and similar bases.