56 Messrs. Glassford and Napier on the. 



" 121 Camden Road Villas, Camden Town, 



"Dear Sir, March 7, 1842. 



" I have to apologize for not writing sooner, but I have had 

 a smart attack of asthma, which is now gone off. 



" Graham's experiments are very ingenious, but I do not 

 see that they can be applied to explain the diffusion of gases 

 as laid down by Dalton, and now universally admitted. I 

 consider gases and steam (so long as it is steam) follow ex- 

 actly the same laws, the only difference being that steam lique- 

 fies at an accessible temperature and pressure, whereas the 

 gases liquefy at temperatures and pressures that are almost 

 inaccessible. I view all gaseous bodies as elastic fluids that 

 act upon one another and upon other bodies by the laws of 

 elastic fluids ; and this seems to be sufficient to account for 

 all the physical properties discovered by experiment. It also 

 gets rid of the only exceptionable part of Dalton's theory, 

 namely his hypothesis that one gas is inelastic to all other 

 gases, which, although it be intelligible in words, is incompre- 

 hensible by the understanding. 



" I do not apprehend that your manner of explaining 

 Graham's experiments is liable to objection. 

 " ToThos. S. Thomson, Esq., " Believe me to be, yours, &c., 

 5 Buri/ St., St. James's." " James Ivory." 



VIII. On the Cyanides of the Metals, ajid their Combina- 

 tions 'with Cyanide of Potassium. Part I. Cyanide of Gold. 

 jBj/ Messrs. Charles F. O. Glassford awrf James Napier*. 

 1, npHE various compounds which cyanogen forms with 

 * the metals constitute one of the most interesting class 

 of bodies which the science of chemistry can produce ; and 

 the rapid progress of electi'o-metallurgy, with the almost uni- 

 versal use of these cyanides in the practice of this art, adds a 

 double interest to the study of these compounds with the al- 

 kaline cyanides. Indeed, we might have expected that long 

 before this some definite information would have been pub- 

 lished upon the nature, constitution and easy preparation of 

 these salts, as yet however, so far as we are aware, nothing 

 complete has appeared. With a view to remedy this, and to 

 facilitate a full investigation of the subject, we have drawn up 

 the following observations, the result of extensive practical 

 operations in the art of electro-metallurgy, which we beg to 

 present to the Chemical Society, in the hope that our results, 

 in connexion with those of others who may be labouring in the 



* Communicated by the Chemical Society j having been read February 

 19, 1844. 



