Oxalic acid from cyanogen

Synthesis of oxalic acid from cyanogen Wohler... 

As oxalic acid is the product obtained by this hydrolysis it must have the constitution as represented, i.e., it is di-carboxyl. In fact, when cyanogen is hydrolyzed ammonium oxalate is obtained which, of course, results from the combination of the oxalic acid and ammonia as first formed. 

That cyanogen is N = C—C=N is proven both by its analogy to molecular oxygen, in the above formation from mercuric cyanide, and by the fact that it is the nitrile of oxalic acid. When hydrolyzed it reacts with four molecules of water and yields oxalic acid and ammonia which then, of course, unite and form ammonium oxalate. 

S3mthesis from Cyanogen.—Two methods of synthesis of hydrocyanic acid support the view that this compound has the cyanide structure and not the iso-cyanide. Cyanogen gas because it yields oxalic acid on hydrolysis must have the constitution in which the two cyanogen groups are linked by the carbon atoms rather than nitrogen. 

A new photometric determination of volatile bases in tobacco and tobacco smoke in terms of nicotine, which compares quantitatively with mass spectral and g.c. methods, has been developed.27 A colorimetric method for the estimation of nicotine alkaloids in tobacco by reaction with cyanogen bromide and 4,4 -di-aminostilbene-2,2 -disulphonic acid has also been reported.28 Dilute sulphuric acid extraction of nicotine and anabasine from autopsy tissue appears to be a more efficient method than extraction with acidified ethanol, aqueous oxalic acid, and steam distillation.29 Thin-layer chromatography has been effective in the analysis of nicotine and other alkaloids and drugs.30 Two reports on the isolation of anabasine from anabasine-lupinine mixtures have appeared.31 The P a values of some nicotine-type compounds have been determined.32... 

Butlerow at first assumed that there is a difference in kind between the affinity units —CN (primary) and CH3— (secondary), so that a primarysecondary binding existed in methyl cyanide and the acetic acid and ethyl compounds derived from it, whilst in dimethyl there were two secondary valencies. Crum Brown disproved this, since in cyanogen NC—CN there are two primary valencies, hence there are in oxalic acid, glycollic acid, and acetic... 

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