52 REPORT — 1841. 



fore be regarded as that radical. The present communication consists, first, in an 

 investigation of the evidence on which this body acquired its character as the radical ; 

 secondly, an examination of other reputed sources of this substance ; thirdly, of the 

 action of iodine on sulphocyanide of potassium ; and lastly, some theoretical con- 

 siderations on the constitution of the sulphocyanides. Three arguments may be ad- 

 vanced in favour of the radical character of the body procured from the sulphocyan- 

 ides by chlorine ; first, its analysis ; second, the mode of its formation ; and third, 

 so far as the existence of hydrogen is concerned, the circumstance of its formation 

 from dry sulphocyanide of potassium, an anhydrous salt, by dry chlorine. 



The evidence afforded by its analysis was, that M. Liebig obtained the same amount 

 of sulphur as should be contained in the pure radical, and that it contained carbon 

 and nitrogen in the same proportion as cyanogen. But this is the case with other 

 substances which may be derived from the sulphocyanides : hydrothiocyanic acid, 

 metasulphocyanogen, and the true radical, contain very nearly the same amount of 

 sulphur, and also carbon and nitrogen in the same proportion as cyanogen. And as, 

 on the other hand, it has been found constantly to contain hydrogen, its anal^'sis 

 has not been sufficient to justify its being considered the radical. With regard to 

 the mode of its formation, were this radical either a simple or a stable substance, the 

 process might have been expected to produce it ; but its liability to decomposition in 

 the nascent state is so great, that this argument is of little weight. Sulphuric acid, 

 cyanogen, and an ammoniacal salt exist among the products. As to the circum- 

 stance of its formation out of contact with hydrogen or oxygen, that is, by fused 

 sulphocyanide of potassium and dry chlorine, the author has' been assured that sul- 

 phocyanide of potassium, usually considered to be an anhydrous salt, retains, after 

 solution, recrystallization and fusion, a certain amount of water in combination ; so 

 that should the product of the action of dry chlorine on fused sulphocyanide of po- 

 tassium contain hydrogen, as does the product of action of chlorine on solution of 

 sulphocyanide of potassium, the source of the hydrogen is quite obvious. 



The yellow product of spontaneous decomposition of hydrosulphocyanic acid, and 

 the yellow precipitate produced in solutions of the sulphocyanides by voltaic agency, 

 are considered by some to be identical with the product of action of chlorine. On 

 examination each was found to consist of hydrothiocyanic acid ; that is, the acid 

 produced from metasulphocyanogen by the action of alkalies. The action of iodine 

 on solutions of the sulphocyanides is precisely analogous to that of chlorine. There 

 are produced cyanogen, sulphuric acid, ammonia, and metasulphocyanogen. A re- 

 markable circumstance connected with hydrothiocyanic acid and metasulphocyanogen 

 (products of decomposition of sulphocyanogen) is, that each contains twelve equiva- 

 lents of sulphur, which is the number representing, according to Prof. Graham, the 

 salimolecular group of that element, as founded on its isomorphism in one state with 

 bisulphate of potash. Sulphocyanide of potassium retains, after once dissolved, pre- 

 cisely one-sixth of an equivalent of water, so that the equivalent of this salt, and 

 probably of sulphocyanogen itself, must be multiplied by six ; one equivalent will 

 then include twelve atoms of sulphur. Hydrosulphocyanic acid thus falling to be 

 represented as Sj, Cy^ -|- Hg, a rational formula is at once suggested for metasul- 

 phocyanogen, that of a hydrated hydrosulphocyanic acid, in which four out of the 

 six equivalents of hydrogen have been removed, or 8,3 Cy^, H, + H O. 



Should these views of the constitution of sulphocyanogen prove correct, it must 

 be viewed as a hexabasic radical, in whose salts each atom of the base must always 

 be of the same name. 



On the direct Formation of Cyanogen from its Elements. By G. Fownes. 



After referring to the experiments of Desfosses, which went to show that gaseous 

 nitrogen, brought into contact with charcoal at a high temperature, an alkali being 

 present, is absorbed in notable quantity, andacorrespondingamount of cyanide pro- 

 duced ; and also to the process for manufacturing Prussian blue, by Lewis Thomson, 

 in which nitrogen is derived from the atmosphere, the author proceeded to show that 

 the existence of nitrogen, in a solid state, in many varieties of charcoal, and the 

 possible presence of ammonia in the nitrogen gas employed, were sources of error 

 against which it was necessary to guard. 



The author uniformly found, that whenever wood-charcoal or coke are ignited in a 



