18 _ ACI~ACI 
ii: tg alt 
that laurel water was used frequently as a remedy for 
+ pulmonary consumption, in Holland. 
= Other vegetables contain the acid, besides Lauro’ 
SF Cerasus, or cherry laurel. It exists in bitter almonds, 
seh the leaves of the peach-tree, the kernels of the fruit j 
Se of this and many other plants of the family, in the 
= a6 pips of apples, and in the bark of the prunus padus, 
png or bird - It exists also in the bark of the pru- 
ss nus Virginiana, and prunus serotina, or wild cherry 
a pice of this country.* 
a. -Qvatitizs. Liquid, transparent, and colourless at the 
ordinary temperature, but occasionally yellowish; first 
~ taste cooling, after taste peculiar, bitterish, acrid, irri- 
tating ;. slightly reddens tinct. turnsole ; odour pow- 
erful, resembling that of bitter almonds, vraag. 7 ge 
able, unless mingled with a large quantity of air. 
Exposed to light and air, spontaneously undergoes 
decomposition, when the above properties are lost. 
When a few are put on paper, it quickly eva- 
porates, and in the generation of cold, the residue is 
ee unique property, distinguishing it from 
other liquids. Soluble in alcohol—very little so in 
‘ water ; agitated with ten or twelve times its volume - 
of that fluid, it re-collects on its surface, like oils, — 
** Left to cool in vessels, it is decomposed in less than 
_an hour, and rarely preserves its integrity more than a 
fortnight.” Magendie. It consists of a peculiar gaseous, 
os ed on compound of carbon ~~ nitro 
ed Cyanogene, united with hydrogen as eae 
Pa o> ing principle—hence it is called hydrocyanic a 
. 
medicinal preparation contains a small portion 
only of the concentrated compound. According to Ma-— 
gendie, the acid, prepared according to Sheele’s me- 
thod, is of irregular medicinal power; and he recom- 
mends Gay Laussac’s acid, diluted by six times its 
volume, or 8.5 times its weight, of di water, for 
medical purposes: this mixture Magendie calls medi= 
-einal prussic acid. Dr. Ure proposes that the specific 
gravity shall designate that fit for medicine; and after 
comparative experiments of the gravity of the acids 
obtained by different processes, he states that the 
ee Ree prescribed is of specific gravity, 0.996 or 
_Errscrs. Hydrocyanic acid, in a sufficient quantity, 
ins destroys life in man and animals. The ve- 
