From the time it was first discovered that mercury salts would react with olefins, there has been a controversy as to the structure of the products. Hofmann and Sand showed that ethylene and mercuric or basic mercuric salts react in aqueous solutions to give two compounds to which they at first assigned the formulas HOCH2CHJlgX and XHgCH2CH20CH2-CHeHgX; l when the reaction takes place in an alcohol solution a ...
