Mr. Everitt ow the Preparation of Hydrocyanic Acid. 97 



of war, whether military or naval; or as in the manipulations 

 of chemistry or of anatomy; or, finally, as in almost every art 

 or exercise that man has occasion to perform. Apes, though 

 furnished with four hands, have no hand equal to that of man. 

 If they had the hand, they have not the skill to direct it; and 

 if they had the skill to direct it, they have not the hand. With 

 quadrupeds the case is still worse. From the size and struc- 

 ture of their fabric, many of them have greater strength or 

 greater swiftness than man ; but they have no hand. A hoof 

 is but a very inadequate substitute for it; and even with all 

 the advantages of mind, man would be nothing without the 

 master instrument of the hand. Birds, fishes, and reptiles are, 

 by their organization, removed still further from man than even 

 quadrupeds; while the other divisions of the animal kingdom, 

 — the Mollusca, the Articulata, and the Radiata, — are removed 

 even further still. For to whichsoever of them we direct our 

 regard, we find in their external structure nothing that ap- 

 proaches to the type of man, nothinir that is fit to be compared 

 to the fabric of the human body, and nothing that equals the 

 capabilities of its several organs, whether for the purposes of 

 sense, of prehension, or of progression ; but rather an increas- 

 ing dissimilitude of structure, in proportion as you approxi- 

 mate the bottom of the scale, till at last you reach the minute 

 and microscopic, but brisk and agile animalcule, that wheels 

 and frolics in its drop of fluid, and yet exhibits no visible indica- 

 tion of being furnished with any external organ or instrument 

 of locomotion whatsoever. Thus man stands, without a rival, 

 at the head of the animal creation, — the image of his Maker, 

 " the noblest work of God" ! P. Keith. 



Charing, Kent, Oct. 1, 1834. 



XV. On tlie Reaction "^hich takes place nsohen Ferrocyanuret of 

 Potassium is distilled with dilute Sulphuric Acid ; with some 

 Facts relative to Hydrocyanic Acid and its preparation of 

 uniform strength. By Thomas Everitt, Esq., Professor of 

 Chemistry to the Medico- Botanical Society, Sfc* 



(1.) AS the decomposition of the ferrocyanuret of potassium 

 -^ by means of sulphuric acid is likely to become the 

 only method by which hydrocyanic acid will be prepared for 

 chemical and medical purposes, on account of the cheap rate 

 at which this salt is now to be had chemically pure ; and as 

 in all operations of this sort the more exactly we adhere to 

 the proportions indicated by an accurate knowledge of the na- 



• Communicated by the Author. 



Fhird Series. Vol. 6. No. 32. Feb, 1 835. O 



