IV.— CHEMISTRY. 



Art. LX, — On the Analogy of Cyanogen to Oxygen. By William Skey, 



Analyst to the Geological Survey of New Zealand. 



[Head before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 29th August, 1874.] 



I have to preface my remarks upon this subject by the statement that they 

 are entirely of a theoretical nature, and therefore unsupported by the results 

 of that kind of experimental research, the details of which it will be 



cons 



his 



indulgence for a hearing upon that which, if it has any value, owes it to 

 chemical researches and chemical records, long since accumulated by other 



niis 



will 



true 



assigned 



it being, I think, incorrect. 



The great impoitance of interpreting those facts correctly by which we 

 compare our imitative with our real elements, is so obvious to those anxious to 

 apprehend more of the true nature of the elements than at present we do, that 

 I need not excuse myself for bringing such a matter as this before you. 



The substance, the supposed position of which I take exception to, is 

 cyanogen, a compound as you are aware of carbon and nitrogen in equivalent 

 quantities. It and a number of other compounds into which it enters are now 

 classed indiscriminately and collectively with the chlorine 

 radicals, but to cyanogen itself "par excellence" is attributed tl 



That this is in reality the position assigned to cyanogen is indisputable. 

 Brand and Taylor in their excellent work on chemistry, designate this 



group as salt 



chlorine 



iodine 



Elementary 



Chemistry, 1871, describes cyanogen in terms which certainly have a tendency 

 to keep it so classified. The special grounds upon which cyanogen is classed 



believe 



the 



and 



