Note 364 — Chapter X · ALUMINIUM; AMPHOTERIC HYDROXIDES; HYDROLYSIS OF SALTS. THE ALUMINIUM AND ZINC GROUPS

This suggests a much broader, natural definition of a base than the conventional one. All salts of very weak acids, to a certain degree, which is determined by the weakness of their acids, do exactly what the ordinary bases do, e.g. neutralize acids. Metal derivatives of acids weaker than water, metal amides, like Zn(NH2)2, metal alkyls, like zinc methyl, Zn(CH3)2, react more vigorously than the hydroxides do, e.g. in neutralizing acids, and water attacks them and acts upon them, exactly as ordinary acids interact with metal hydroxides. We have, for instance, Zn(CH3)2 + 2 HOH → Zn(OH)2 + 2 CH4.