CYANOGEN

(Gr. icvavos, and yiyvouai, J am produced;because it is an e ential ingredient of Pru ian Jablue.) Cyanogen is a gas of a strong and peculiar odour, ""resembling that of rubbed peach leaves; it is obtained by heating cyanuret of mercury. Under a pre ure of between 3 and 4 atmospheres it becomes a limpid liquid. It extinguishes at a per, is highly poisonous and unrespirable, and burns in contact of air with a rich purple flame. Water absorbs between 4 and 5 times its volume of the gas. It is composed of carbon and nitrogen in the proportions of 12 carbon + 14 nitrogen = 26 cyanogen; it is therefore a bicarburet of nitrogen. Mixed with oxygen it explodes by the electric spark, and is resolved into carbonic acid and nitrogen gas. It combines with hydrogen to produce the hydrocyanic or pru ic acid: it forms with the metals cyamtreis or cyanides. [s. 326]