284 CHEMICAL TRANSFORMATIONS. 



influence upon it. There is in the nature and constitution of the 

 compounds of nitrogen a kind oi tension of their component 

 parts, and a strong disposition to yield to transformations, which 

 effect spontaneously the transposition of their atoms from the 

 instant that water or its elements are brought in contact with 

 them. 



The characters of the hyd rated cyanic acid, one of the sim- 

 plest of all the compounds of nitrogen, are perhaps the best 

 adapted to convey a distinct idea of the manner in which the 

 atoms are disposed of in transformations. This acid contains 

 carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, in such proportions, that 

 the addition of a certain quantity of the elements of water is ex- 

 actly sufficient to cause the oxygen contained in the water and 

 acid to unite with the carbon and form carbonic acid, and 'the 

 hydrogen of the water and acid to combine with the nitrogen and 

 form ammonia. The most favorable conditions for a complete 

 transformation are, therefore, associated in these bodies, and it is 

 well known that the disunion takes place on the instant in which 

 the cyanic acid and water are brought into contact, the mixture 

 being converted into carbonic acid and ammonia, with brisk effer- 

 vescence. 



This decomposition may be considered as the type of the trans- 

 formations of all azotized compounds ; it is putrefaction in its 

 simplest and most perfect form, because the new products, the 

 carbonic acid and ammonia, are incapable of further transforma- 

 tions. 



Putrefaction assumes a totally different and much more com- 

 plicated form, when the products at first formed undergo a further 

 change. In these cases the process consists of several stages, of 

 which it is impossible to determine when one ceases and the other 

 begins. 



The transformations of cyanogen, a body composed of carbon 

 and nitrogen, and the simplest of all the compounds of nitrogen, 

 will convey a clear idea of the great variety of products which 

 are produced in such a case : it is the only example of the pu- 

 trefaction of an azotized body which has been at all accurately 

 studied. 



A solution of cyanogen in water becomes turbid after a short 



