330 Transactions. — Chemistry. 



2nd. That it also combines with hydrogen and forms with it a compound 



analogous to hydrochloric acid. 

 3rd. That when passed into a solution of any caustic alkali it is in part 



oxidized, alkaline cyanates and cyanides forming. 



4th. That when cyanides are electrolyzed the radical is evolved at the 

 positive pole. 



If to this we add that cyanide of potassium crystallizes in cubes, as do the 

 chlorides, bromides, and iodides of this base, I think we exhaust the evidence 



V • m 



which can as yet be 

 elements referred to. 



analogy 



Such are the reasons for classifying cyanogen with these radicals, and I will 

 now go over them seriatim. 



^ In the first place it is true that cyanogen combines directly with the least 

 oxidizable metals, but so does oxygen when in the allotropic state, also sulphur 

 at a slight elevation of temperature, and further its hydride (sulphuretted 



anic 



oxygen and sulphur should therefore on this principle be admitted along with 

 cyanogen into the group of radicals, which would be absurd, as they are not 



admitted as radicals at all. 



eliable 



In the second place, besides cyanogen, sulphur and a number of other 

 elements combine readily with hydrogen, the bulk of which are not halogens, 

 while in reference to the supposed analogy existing between hydrocyanic and 

 hydrochloric acids, I really fail to see any grounds for this. 



Hydrochloric acid is a very strong one, intensely acid, and forms salts with 

 the alkaline metals which are quite neutral. Hydrocyanic acid on the other 

 hand, if acid at all (which I doubt), is so feebly so that "it scarcely affects the 

 blue litmus paper"; indeed I believe it to be neutral, as any minute acid 

 reaction which has been obtained in respect to it may be due to carbonic acid, 



acid. 



with 



Further, in accord with this, the salts of cyanogen with the alkaline metals 

 are not neutral, as are the corresponding salts of the chlorine group, but 

 strongly alkaline. 



In reference now to the third supposed joint characteristic of cyanogen 

 and the radicals to which it is compared, we can parallel this in the case of 

 sulphur and phosphorus j thus either of these elements, when warmed with a 



forms 



them being oxidized at the expense of the oxygen of the alkali, as in the case 

 ot cyanogen, chlorine, etc., under these circumstances. 



potassium 



polar affinities 



liberated by voltaic action also 



