42 
ON MADDER. 
pursued the investigation far enough to give any satisfactory 
theory to explain the metamorphosis, which takes place 
among the elements of the sugar, the alcohol, and the nitric 
acid, in this process, in the formation of hydrocyanic acid, 
and I am not aware of any analogous case in Chemistry, by 
which to account for its production. 
Mr. Redwood said, he had never heard of hydrocyanic 
acid having been detected in the spiritus etheris nitrici in this 
country, but had been informed that some of the nitrous ether 
of commerce contained an appreciable quantity of it. The 
nitrous ether, which was thus contaminated, was prepared 
from the residual liquor, consisting principally of alcohol and 
nitric acid, obtained from the manufacturers of fulminating 
mercury. Some manufacturers of nitrous ether had been 
obliged to discontinue the use of this liquor, in consequence 
of the difficulty of entirely getting rid of the hydrocyanic 
acid which it contained. 
Trans. London Pharm. Society. 
ART. XIV ON MADDER. By M. Girardin, Professor of Prac- 
tical Chemistry at the Municipal School of Rouen. 
In commerce the name of Lizari has for a long time been 
restricted to the entire roots of the madder, while that of 
Madder is applied to the pulverized roots. 
The Lizaris are very little employed for the purposes of 
dyeing, and there is hardly any but the Lizari of Avignon 
which is met with in the markets of France. The Lizari 
of Cyprus is actually of rare occurrence ; that of Alsatia is 
never met with. 
