ON EXPLOSIONS IN CHEMICAL LABORATORIES. 255 
appears, had escaped the action of the muriatic acid. 
Chlorine gas having again been passed for several hours 
from the fresh mixture into the solution of ferrocyanide, 
the latter was left standing in a wooden tub. Suddenly, 
and without perceptible external cause, a violent explosion 
took place in the premises where the operation had been 
performed, the whole building shook, and the windows and 
doors were partly torn off their hinges. The wooden tub, 
which contained the solution of ferrocyanide of potassium, 
and whose staves were an inch thick, was blown to pieces 
and parts of it thrown np the chimney. 
The cause of this remarkable explosion, was undoubtedly 
the formation and decomposition of chloride of nitrogen. By 
the action of the free hydrochloric acid on the ferrocyanide 
of potassium, it is probable that cyanuretted hydrogen and 
some ammonia, and consequently sal ammoniac, had been 
developed. Now it is well known, that by the action of 
chlorine on sal ammoniac, there is formed chloride of nitro- 
gen, which explodes with great violence when it is brought 
in contact with certain organic substances. Dobreiner long 
ago mentioned that chloride of nitrogen was formed when 
chlorine gas was conveyed into a solution of the animoniacai 
chloride of zinc. — Pharmaceutical Journal from Buchner's 
Repertorium. 
