Dr. Cuthush on the Formation of Cyanogene, ^c. 149 



ginal, would not be a sufficient apology for publishing what 

 was published before, were it not, that more than half which 

 I have written, and which cannot well be separated from the 

 rest, is not to be found in the writings of La Place. As Mr. 

 Bowditch, from such an examination as the time permitted, 

 judged La Place's and my own theory to be in substance the 

 same, and as in some of their principal characteristics they are 

 so in reality, it seems proper to point out where they differ. La 

 Place's mode of explaining the sources of motion in the system, 

 is almost entirely dissimilar. So far is he from showing or 

 even supposing them at all regular in their operation, the 

 tenor of his remark evinces, that he considered them other- 

 wise ; he has asserted that the planets would move in the 

 same direction on their axes as in their orbits; but his illus- 

 tration is totally distinct and diverse from mine. The condi- 

 tions which he has assumed might take place in cases where 

 the condensation of the primary wheel was extremely rapid: 

 in cases of slower condensation my own must be substitu- 

 ted. To the two distinct series of planets; to the regular 

 course of their eccentricity ; to the causes of their relative 

 difference in density; to the causes of their relative degrees 

 of diurnal velocity; to the causes of the obliquity and ec- 

 centricity of the orbits of the asteroids ; to the cause of the 

 depression about Saturn's equator; and to the cause of the 

 regular parallel arrangement of the stellar strata, and the 

 plausibility, or perhaps probability of an eternally progressive 

 formation into worlds, as well as a variety of less important 

 particulars, he has in no instance alluded. 

 With high respect. 



Your obedient servant, 



ISAAC ORR. 

 Hartford, Mv. 9th, 1822. 



Art. Vin. — On the formation of cyanogene or prussine, in 

 some chemical processes not heretofore noticed : by James 

 CuTBUSH, A. S, U. S. A. Acting Professor of Chemistry 

 and Mineralogy, in the U. S. Military Academy at West 

 Point. 



In 1815, Gay Lussac, the able experimental associate of 

 Thenard, discovered the gaseous compound called cyanogene, 

 which, from its constituent parts, is also called carburet of 



