if they are alkaline, in order to fix the ammonia which may have been disengaged by putrefaction; the product is then to be distilled from a vapour-bath till an eighth part has passed over into the receiver; and the distilled fluid is to be tested with the sulphate of iron in the usual way.[1] Orfila maintains that from hydrocyanized syrup only two-thirds of the acid can be distilled over; and cautions the analyst against estimating quantity by such means.[2] M. Ossian Henry has proposed to condense the acid in distillation by a much more complex process, which consists in obtaining it in the first instance in the form of cyanide of silver.[3] But with a good refrigeratory there is no difficulty in condensing every particle of acid with no other aid than cold water.
By this process Lassaigne could detect the poison in a cat or dog killed by twelve drops and examined twenty-four or forty-eight hours after death.[4] But Dr. Schubarth has objected to it,—and the same objection will apply to every process in which heat is used,—that hydrocyanic acid may be formed during distillation by the decomposition of animal matter.[5] His objection, however, appears only to rest on conjecture or presumption at farthest; and I doubt whether, supposing the distillation to go on slowly in the vapour-bath, the heat is sufficient to bring about the requisite decomposition. The force of the objection must be decided by future researches.
It is worthy of remark that hydrocyanic acid is apt to be formed in the course of the changes produced by various agents in organic matters. These are probably more numerous than the toxicologist is at present exactly aware of. An instance of its formation in the course of the decay of unsound cheese has been ascertained lately by Dr. Witling;[6] and another example will be mentioned under the head of spurred rye.
Cyanide of Potassium.—The only compound of hydrocyanic acid which requires notice is the cyanide of potassium. This is, when pure, a white salt, bitter, not decomposable by a red heat unless in contact with air, very soluble in water, and sparingly so in rectified spirit. Its watery solution restores the blue of reddened litmus, and does not precipitate lime-water: the mixed sulphates of the two oxides of iron form with it Prussian blue: nitrate of silver causes a white precipitate insoluble in cold nitric acid, but disappearing when the acid is boiled: sulphate of copper causes an apple-green precipitate, which becomes white on the addition of hydrochloric acid: chloride of platinum or perchloric acid will indicate the potash. In a complex organic mixture it is difficult to detect the potash; but hydrocyanic acid may be obtained from it by distilling the suspected fluid with tartaric acid.[7]
