Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 1 57 



little of it, and leaves it quite white. By re-dissolving and again 

 crystallizing, it is obtained in small brilliant radiating crystals. 



Olivile is readily soluble in alcohol and in water, and crystallizes 

 from either solution ; it also dissolves, but in small quantity, in aether, 

 and in the volatile and fixed oils. 



Olivile possesses, like lithofellic and silvic acids and some other 

 substances, the .property of fusing at different temperatures when 

 crystallized and when amorphous. When crystallized its fusing point 

 is 248° F. ; it assumes by this operation a resinous aspect, and neither 

 gains nor loses in weight ; on cooling it does not lose its trans- 

 parency, and splits without re-assuming its crystalline structure ; its 

 melting point is then about 1 5 8° F. When it is dissolved in alcohol and 

 re-crystallized, its original fusing point of 248° F. is again assumed. 



Olivile may be either anhydrous, monohydrated, or bihydrated ; 

 the anhydrous is obtained by crystallizing it in anhydrous alcohol, or 

 by fusing the olivile crystallized from water. Its composition is re- 

 presented by C 28 H 18 O 10 . 



Olivile crystallized in water, and pressed between folds of filter- 

 ing paper until it becomes pulverulent and dry to the touch, contains 

 two equivalents of water ; it then has the composition indicated by 

 the formula C 28 H 20 O l *. 



Olivile by indirect means may be combined with oxide of lead ; 

 the salt obtained is represented by an equivalent of anhydrous oli- 

 vile and two equivalents of oxide of lead. 



The composition of olivile, stated by M. Pelletier, does not agree 

 with any of those above stated : he gave its composition atomically 

 as C I4 H 9 O 2 , and the composition in 100 parts as — 



Carbon 63-84 



Hydrogen 8*06 



Oxygen 28-10 



100- 



No one of the three analyses above described agrees with this 

 statement. — Journ. de Pharm. et de Chem., Avril 1843. 



ON SOME NEW COMBINATIONS OF CYANOGEN. 

 BY MONS. A. MEILLET. 

 The peculiar manner in which cyanogen acts towards iron, by 

 forming two very stable acids with it, leads to the supposition that it 

 is not the only metal with which cyanogen is capable of combining. 

 In fact, some German chemists, and Gmelin among others, have dis- 

 covered three new compounds, which are platino-cyanogen, cobalto- 

 cyanogen, and chromo- cyanogen, and afterwards the hydrogenated 

 acids analogous to ferro-hydrocyanic acid, and several other metallic 

 salts. The processes employed were somewhat complicated, and they 

 have not continued their experiments. The method which M. Meillet 

 employed is, he says, simple, and there may be procured by it a great 

 number of perfectly definite compounds ; the author states, as this 

 inquiry requires much time and care, he shall on the present occa- 

 sion give merely the principal characters of these salts, reserving their 

 analyses for a future opportunity. 



