Essay upon the Compounds of Cyanogen. 335 



taste, and capable of detonating powerfully when heated or struck. 

 With magnesia two compounds are obtained, one of which is of a 

 rose color, insoluble, and merely decrepitating by heat, while the 

 other is in the form of white capillary crystals, detonating violently 

 by a blow. With baryta and strontia, and with the oxides of zinc, 

 iron, copper and mercury, it also furnishes compounds which are 

 slightly soluble and capable of detonating. 



MM. Liebig and Gay Lussac, in support of their hypothetical view 

 of the constitution of this compound, point out an analogy between it 

 and the supertartrates, in all of which the excess of acid may be 

 neutralized by different bases. My reasons for rejecting this opin- 

 ion, and for believing it belongs to an entirely distinct class of com- 

 pounds, are — 



1. That no one has succeeded in separating cyanous acid, either 

 from the fulminic acid, or from fulminating silver. 



2. That the results of the analyses by Liebig, of the fulminates 

 of potassa and soda, cannot be reconciled with the belief, that these 

 salts are triple cyanites. 



3. That the striking resemblance in properties, existing between 

 the fulminic and the ferro-cyanic acids, each of which contains a 

 metal as one of its elements, and is capable of combining with the 

 oxide of the same metal, or with the oxides of other metals, forming 

 salts of sparing solubility, exhibits an analogy, hitherto, I believe, un- 

 observed between them, and leads to a suspicion of similarity of con- 

 stitution. For these and other reasons which will be given under the 

 head of argento-cyanate of silver, and which are founded upon the 

 analysis of that salt, I consider the fulminic acid as a compound of 2 

 atoms of cyanogen, 1 of silver and 1 of hydrogen, or 



Cyanogen, 52=2 atoms, 



Silver, 110=1 " Cyanuret of silver, 136 = 1 atom. 



or, •' 

 Hydrogen, 1 = 1 " Hydro-cyanic acid, 27 = 1 " 



163 representative number. 

 Argento-cyanate of Silver. — Fulminating Silver. — This com- 

 pound was discovered by Mr. Howard ; it may be obtained by dis- 

 solving 60 grains of silver in half an ounce of nitric acid, sp. gr. 1.52, 

 adding two ounces of alcohol, sp. gr. .850, and heating the mixture 

 gently until the ebullition commences. White flocculi soon appear, 

 and then the heat must be gradually diminished. A copious precip- 

 itate, exceeding in weight the metal employed, is obtained, which, 



