Ann., 1895, 288, p. 304), crystallizes in needles which melt at 51–52° C. (with decomposition). It is decomposed by alkalis and by acids:
| C3H6N2O3 = | CO2+C2H5OH+N2 | (alkalis), |
| 2C3H6N2O3 = 2 | CO2+C2H5OH+2N2+H2O+C2H4 | (acids). |
On oxidation it yields nitro-urethane. With a methyl alcoholic solution of potash it yields a yellow precipitate, which is probably the potassium salt of nitrosocarbamic acid, NK·NO·CO2K. Nitrourethane, NO2·NH·CO2C2H5, formed by dissolving urethane in concentrated sulphuric acid and adding ethyl nitrate to the well-cooled mixture (J. Thiele, ibid.), crystallizes in plates which melt at 64° C. and is soluble in water. It has a strongly acid reaction, its salts, however, being neutral. Its silver salt with methyl iodide gives a methyl ether, which is readily split by ammonia into methyl nitramine and methyl urethane (cf. A. P. Franchimont, Rec. trav. chim., 1894, 13, p. 309). On reduction with zinc dust and acetic acid it yields hydrazine carboxylic ester. Phenyl urethena, C6H5NH·CO2C2H5, is formed by the action of cyanformic ester on aniline at 100° C.; by the action of absolute alcohol on benzoyl azoimide (T. Curtius, Jour. prak. Chem. [2], 52, p. 214); and by the action of bromine and sodium ethylate on benzamide (E. Jeffreys, Amer. Chem. Jour., 1899, 22, p. 41). It crystallizes in long needles which melt at 51–52° C. and boil at 227–228° C. (with partial decomposition). It is easily soluble in alcohol and when heated in a sealed tube yields aniline and urea. With phosphorus pentasulphide it yields phenyl mustard oil.
Physiologically urethane has a rapid hypnotic action, producing a calm sleep and having no depressant effect on the circulation. It is much used as an anaesthetic for animals. Di-urethane, NH(CO2C2H5)2, and hedonal, NH2CO2CH(CH3)·(C3H7), are also narcotics, the latter being, in addition, a powerful diuretic. Phenyl urethane or euphorin has a physiological action more like that of acetanilide and phenacetin than of urethane. It depresses the temperature and is an analgesic. It is of little value as an hypnotic.
URFÉ, HONORÉ D', Marquis de Valbromey, Comte de Châteauneuf (1568–1625), French novelist and miscellaneous writer, was born at Marseilles on the 11th of February 1568, and was educated at the Collège de Tsarnon. A partisan of the League, he was taken prisoner in 1595, and, though soon set at liberty, he was again captured and imprisoned. During his imprisonment he read Ronsard, Petrarch and above all the Diana enamorada of George de Montemayor and Tasso's Aminta. Here, too, he wrote the Épîtres morales (1598). Honoré's brother Anne, comte D'Urfé, had married in 1571 the beautiful Diane de Châteaumorand, but the marriage was annulled in 1598 by Clement VIII. Anne D'Urfé was ordained to the priesthood in 1603, and died in 1621 dean of Montbrison. Diane had a great fortune, and to avoid the alienation of the money from the D'Urfé family, Honoré married her in 1600. This marriage also proved unhappy; D'Urfé spent most of his time separated from his wife at the court of Savoy, where he held the charge of chamberlain. The separation of goods arranged later on may have been simply due to money embarrassments. It was in Savoy that he conceived the plan of his novel Astrée, the scene of which is laid on the banks of the Lignon in his native province of Forez. It is a leisurely romance in which the loves of Céladon and Astrée are told at immense length with many digressions. The recently discovered circumstances of the marriages of the brothers have disposed of the idea that the romance is autobiographical in its main idea, but some of the episodes are said to be but slightly veiled accounts of the adventures of Henry IV. The shepherds and shepherdesses of the story are of the conventional type usual to the pastoral, and they discourse of love with a casuistry and elaborate delicacy that are by no means rustic. The two first parts of Astrée appeared in 1610, the third in 1619, and in 1627 the fourth part was edited and a fifth added by D'Urfé's secretary Balthazar Baro. Astrée set the fashion temporarily in the drama as in romance, and no tragedy was complete without wire-drawn discussions on love in the manner of Céladon and Astrée. D'Urfé also wrote two poems, La Sireine (1611) and Sylvanire (1625). He died from injuries received by a fall from his horse at Villafranca on the 1st of June 1625 during a campaign against the Spaniards. The best edition of Astrée is that of 1647. In 1908 a bust of D'Urfé was erected at Virien (Ain), where the greater part of Astrée was written.
URGA (the Russian form of the Mongol Orgo = palace of a high official), a city of Mongolia, and the administrative centre of the northern and eastern Kalka tribes, in 48° 20′ N., 107° 30′ E., on a tributary of the Tola river. It is the holy city of the Mongols and the residence of the “Living Buddha,” metropolitan of the Kalka tribes, who ranks third in degree of veneration among the dignitaries of the Lamaist Church. This “resplendently divine lama” resides in a sacred quarter on the western side of the town, and acts as the spiritual colleague of the Chinese amban, who controls all temporal matters, and who is specially charged with the control of the frontier town of Kiakhta and the trade conducted there with the Russians.
Hurae, as the Mongols call Urga (Chinese name, K'ulun), stands on the high road from Peking to Kiakhta (Kiachta), about 700 m. N.W. of Peking and 165 m. S. of Kiakhta. There are three distinct quarters: the Kuren or monastery, the residence of the “Living Buddha”; the Mongol city proper (in which live some 13,000 monks); and the Chinese town, two or three miles from the Mongol quarter. Besides the monks the inhabitants number about 25,000. The Chinese town is the great trading quarter. The houses in this part are more substantially built than in the Mongol town, and the streets have a well-to-do appearance. The law which prohibits Chinamen from bringing their wives and families into the place tends to check increase. There is considerable trade between the Russians, Mongols and Chinese, chiefly in cattle, camels, horses, sheep, piece-goods and milk. Until the second half of the 19th century bricks of tea formed the only circulating medium for the retail trade at Urga, but Chinese brass cash then began to pass current in the markets. The trade of Urga is valued at over £1,000,000 a year.
The temples in the Mongol quarter are numerous and imposing, and in one is a gilt image of Maitreya Bodhisattva, 33 ft. in height and weighing 125 tons. When in 1904, on the occasion of the British expedition to Tibet, the Dalai Lama withdrew from Lhassa he went to Urga, where he remained until 1908. During his residence there the Dalai Lama would have no communication with the Urga Lama—described as a drunken profligate (see The Chinese Empire, ed. M. Broomhall, London, 1907, p. 357). The Chinese contemplate building a railway from Peking to Urga. The first section, to Kalgan, was completed in 1909 (see China, § Communications).
URI, one of the cantons of central Switzerland, and one of the earliest members of the confederation. The name is probably connected with the same obscure root as Reuss and Ursern, and is popularly derived from Urochs or Auerochs (wild bull), a bull's head having been borne for ages as the arms of the region. The total area of the canton is 415.3 sq. m., of which 184.3 are reckoned as “productive” (forests covering 43.9 sq. m.), while of the rest 44.3 are occupied by glaciers and 7½ sq. m. by the cantonal share of the Lake of Lucerne. The highest summit in the canton is the Dammastock (11,920 ft.). The canton is composed of the upper valley of the Reuss, a mountain torrent that has cut for itself a deep bed, save in case of the basin of Ursern, near its upper end, and the plain of Altdorf, just before it forms the Lake of Lucerne. Hence, save in these two cases, the canton is made up of a wild Alpine valley, very picturesque in point of scenery, but not offering much chance of cultivation. Through nearly the whole of this savage glen runs the main line of the St Gotthard railway (opened in 1882), the part (28½ m.) in the canton being that between Sisikon, on the Lake of Lucerne, and Göschenen, at the northern mouth of the great tunnel (9¼ m.) through the Alps, and at the lower end of the wild Schöllenen gorge that cuts it off from the basin of Ursern. The most remarkable engineering feats are near Wassen. There is also an electric tramway from Altdorf to its port, Flüelen. On the other hand, several magnificent carriage roads are within the borders of the canton, leading to or over the mountain passes that give access either to Glarus (the Klausen Pass, 6404 ft.), or to Ticino (St Gotthard Pass, 6936 ft.), or to the Grisons (Oberalp Pass, 6719 ft.), or to the Valais (Furka Pass, 7992 ft.). Owing to the physical conformation of the canton, it was difficult for it to extend its rule save towards the south (see below), but since very early days it has held the splendid pastures of the Urnerboden, on the other slope of the Klausen Pass, as well
