courts of the first instance: some of them even possess courts of the second instance. In the Catholic parts of the country there are, also, the ecclesiastical courts of the archbishops and bishops. The courts of the second instance comprise sixteen high courts of the country, of which the one at Berlin is called court of the chamber (Kammergericht). These are permanent courts, and all the time in session. Every high court of the country is divided into two senates (three only excepted), of which the second forms generally the court of appeal, and at the same time attends to affairs of guardianship, &c. The division into senates exists also for criminal cases. These high courts of the country consist of 330 presidents, counsellors and assessors (all judges). Above them stands the privy supreme tribunal at Berlin, as a court of revision for important cases. Civil cases, according to the ancient German custom, pass successively through three courts, criminal cases through two; but all decisions in important criminal cases are sent to the minister of justice, and generally are laid by him before the Kammergericht for its opinion. For the conduct of investigations there is a division, called Inquisitoriat, in the high courts of the country. This organization exists in East and West Prussia, Brandenburg, Pomerania, Silesia, Saxony, Westphalia, and Juliers-Cleves-Berg. B. The province of Posen had, during the existence of the duchy of Warsaw, a judicial organization entirely French, which, with certain modifications, has been retained by the ordinance of Feb. 9, 1817. There are in that province thirty-one courts of the peace, for much the same objects as the French courts of this sort, namely, to effect compromises, to decide in actions for the recovery of small debts, contracts of hire, insults, &c. As courts of the second instance for cases decided by the justices of the peace, and of the first instance for other cases, there are seven "country courts" (Landgerichte), corresponding to the French tribunaux de première instance. In some cases, the oral pleading has been retained in civil cases, but with an extension of the power of the judge, and a curtailing of the irregular writing, which the French process permits to the advocates. (See Process.) For criminal cases there are four inquisitoriats, entirely in the Prussian form. A high court of appeal at Posen, with two presidents and eight counsellors (judges), forms the court of highest instance in all cases. The first appeal is

made from one country court to another; so that these courts exercise mutually an appellate jurisdiction over each other. The high court of appeal is not merely a court of cassation (q. v.), but goes into a consideration of the whole case, and decides it upon the merits. The courts of the peace consist of a judge and an assessor (assistant). The country courts comprise sixty-two presidents, directors, counsellors and assessors. C. In the province of the Lower Rhine, the French administration has been retained entirely, as well in respect 10 the organization of the courts as to the nature of the process. (Only the Eastern Rhenish part of the district of the country court of Coblentz has the Prussian organization.) In this province, there are 123 courts of the peace. Above them stand six country courts, with ninety-one presidents, counsellors and assessors. The court of second instance (in regard to courts of the peace the third) is the Rhenish court of appeal, with two presidents, twenty-six counsellors, and two assessors. There are in these courts, collectively, thirty-three advocates of the crown. At Aix-la-Chapelle, Coblentz, Cologne, Crefeld, Elberfeld and Treves are commercial courts. Appeals of cassation (q. v.) go to the court of cassation at Berlin. D. The principality of Neufchatel and Valingin has its own ancient judicial system. The lower judicial authorities are the mayors and castellans; the higher are two sovereign courts, in which the governor presides, and to which each estate (nobility, officers and communities) sends four members. The supreme tribunal at Berlin is the highest court of justice for that part of the Prussian monarchy, in which the Prussian judicial system prevails. It decides only as the highest court of appeal, the court of third instance, in causes in which the amount in dispute is at least 2000 German dollars, with the exception of a few kinds of cases which belong to it, without regard to the amount, and of some which are excepted from its jurisdiction, without regard to the amount. It acts only on the reports carried up to it from the lower courts, and, whenever a disputed fact remains to be settled, the cause is sent back to the inferior court. The numerous other courts, which possess final jurisdiction, have prevented this tribunal from contributing so much to give completeness and uniformity to the jurisprudence of the country, as other supreme tribunals in other countries; for example, the parliament of Paris, the court of cassation, the court of the imperial chamber,

the Roman rota, &c. The regulation of the judicial system has hitherto fallen principally to the minister of justice. The supreme tribunal, in the year 1824, consisted of a president (bearing the rank of minister) and twenty counsellors, who were chosen from the most distinguished members of the supreme tribunals of all the provinces. In addition to these, there was established, in 1819, for the administration of justice in the Rhenish provinces of Prussia, a court of revision and cassation at Berlin. For the grand duchy of Posen there is a supreme court of appeal, consisting of a president and eight counsellors at Posen. Swedish Pomerania also has its old system of justice, a court of five members, and a supreme court of appeal, composed of a president and three counsellors, both established at Greifswald. Prussian Code (Allgemeines Landrecht, that is, universal law of the country, called also, sometimes, by foreigners, Codex Fridericianus). All the kings of Prussia and Brandenburg, since the elector Frederic William of Brandenburg, have zealously endeavored to improve the system of law and legislation; but none of them have understood so thoroughly the real wants of the people, and none have had such success as king Frederic II, who was, in a great many respects, a benefactor to his country. Immediately after the conclusion of his first war, he gave to the courts a more simple and efficient constitution. The minister of justice (high-chancellor), Samuel V. Cocceji, a celebrated lawyer, began a Corpus Juris Fridericianum, in which the Roman law was brought into a natural order, general principles laid down and conclusions deduced, all subtleties and fictions, and all rules not applicable to the state of Germany, excluded, and all doubtful laws settled (1st part 1749, 2d part 1751). But this essay embraced only a small part of the system of law; and, although it was introduced in some provinces, still the proposed end was not yet attained. After Cocceji's death (1755), his constitution of the courts fell into disuse, and the design of making a new code of laws was for the time abandoned. But, in 1780, under the superintendence of the minister Von Carmer, the formation of a code was undertaken, and prosecuted with unceasing activity. It was not intended to make an entirely new code of laws, but to supply the defects of the existing system. The Roman law was, therefore, taken as the foundation of the work. To each passage was prefixed the place which it should occupy in the code, or the

ground on which it was rejected, and whatever the new institutions made necessary was added according to the prevailing law. This code was published from 1784 to 1788, in six parts. The opinions of those who understood the subject were requested, and prizes offered for the best commentaries on it; and the whole was completed in June, 1791, under the title "General Prussian Code." Some slight faults which were pointed out having been corrected, it was promulgated June 1, 1794, under the title Allgemeines Landrecht. The work has, from the first, held a high rank, and only one distinguished voice has been raised against it, that of John George Schlosser, in his Five Letters on Legislation, and particularly on the Plan of the Prussian Code (Frankfort, 1789-90, 2 parts), which, on the whole, take the same ground as Von Savigny has lately done (Ueber den Beruf unserer Zeit zur Gesetzgebung, Berlin, 1815),* opposing all modern codes. The reforms which have been effected since 1808 have greatly added to its value, and the efforts for its improvement are still continued. • Among the commentaries should be distinguished F. H. von Strombeck's Supplement to the General Code for the Prussian States (Leipsic, 1824, 2 vols.).

Prussia Proper includes the two provinces of East and West Prussia. East Prussia is mainly made up of the former duchy of Prussia, and West Prussia is a part of Poland, which was taken in the partitions. Königsberg is the capital of East Prussia. Dantzic and Marienwerder are the most important places of West Prussia.

PRUSSIAN BLUE. (See Blue, Prussian, aud Prussic Acid.)

PRUSSIC ACID, or HYDROCYANIC ACID, is procured by the following process: To a quantity of powdered prussian blue, diffused in boiling water, let red oxide of mercury be added in successive portions, till the blue color is destroyed. Filter the liquid, and concentrate till a pellicle

* This work of Mr. von Savigny, whose objecbut to compile codes, we by no means share, nor tions against the aptitude of our time, not to make, even consider very profound, is, nevertheless, highly interesting, as might have been expected from the reputation of the author. We recommend its perusal with reference to the history of the code here in question. It sets in a striking light the extreme care with which the Prussian code was drawn up, in which respect it is much distinguished from the French and Austrian codes. Savigny's work has been translated under the title On the Aptitude of the present Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence, by a Barrister of Lincoln's Inn (London).

appears upon its surface. On cooling, crystals of prussiate (or cyanide) of mercury will make their appearance. These, after drying, are put into a tubulated glass retort, to the beak of which is adapted a horizontal tube, about two feet long, and fully half an inch wide at its middle part. The first third part next the retort is filled with small pieces of white marble, the rest with fused muriate of lime. To the end of this tube is adapted a small receiver, which is immersed in a freezing mixture. Pour on the crystals in the retort, muriatic acid in rather less quantity than is sufficient to saturate the oxide of mercury which formed them. Apply a very gentle heat to the retort. Prussic acid will be evolved in vapor, and will condense in the tube. Whatever muriatic acid may pass over with it will be detained by the marble, while the water will be absorbed by the muriate of lime. By means of a moderate heat applied to the tube, the prussic acid may be made to pass successively along; and, after having been left some time in contact with the muriate of lime, may be driven over into the receiver. As the carbonic acid, evolved from marble by the muriatic, is apt to carry off some of the prussic acid, care should be taken so as to prevent the distillation of this mineral acid. Prussic acid, thus obtained, has the following properties: it is a colorless liquid, possessing a strong odor, somewhat resembling that of peach blossoms; and the exhalation, if incautiously inhaled, may produce sickness or fainting. Its taste is cooling at first, then hot, asthenic in a high degree, and a true poison. Its specific gravity, at 441°, is 0.7058; at 64°, 0.6969. It boils at 8140, and congeals at about 3°, becoming crystallized with the fibrous form of nitrate of ammonia. The cold which it produces, when reduced into vapor, even at the temperature of 68°, is sufficient to congeal it. This phenomenon is easily produced by putting a small drop at the end of a slip of paper, or a glass tube. Though repeatedly rectified on pounded marble, it retains the property of feebly reddening paper tinged blue with litmus. The red color disappears as the acid evaporates. The vapor of prussic acid is 0.9476. It was analyzed by Gay-Lussac by passing it through an ignited porcelain tube, containing coils of fine iron wire. No trace of oxygen could be found in it. The result was as follows:

This acid, when compared with other animal products, is distinguished by the great quantity of nitrogen it contains, by its small quantity of hydrogen, and the total absence of oxygen. When this strong acid is kept in well-closed vessels, even though all access of the air is prevented, it sometimes undergoes decomposition in less than one hour. It begins by assuming a reddish-brown color, which becomes deeper and deeper, until at length it deposits a carbonaceous matter, which gives a deep color to both acid and water, and emits an odor like that of ammonia. When potassium is heated in prussic acid vapor, mixed with hydrogen or nitrogen, there is absorption without inflammation, and the metal is converted into a gray, spongy substance, which melts, and assumes a yellow color. Supposing the quantity of potassium employed capable of disengaging from water a volume of hydrogen equal to 50 parts, we find, after the action of the potassium, that the gaseous mixture has experienced a diminution of volume amounting to 50 parts. On treating this mixture with potash, and analyzing the residue by oxygen, we find that 50 parts of hydrogen have been produced, and, consequently, that the potassium has absorbed 100 parts. of prussic acid vapor; for there is a diminution of 50 parts, which would obviously have been twice as great, had not 50 parts of hydrogen been disengaged. The yellow matter is prussiate of potash, properly a cyanide of potassium, in analogy with the chloride and iodide of potassium, formed when the vapor of muriatic and hydriodic acid is made to act upon potassium. The base of prussic acid thus divested of its hydrogen, to which it owed its acidifying quality, is called cyanogen by Gay-Lussac, in allusion to its being the basis of the blue color of prussian blue. It is obtained by heating the cyanide of mercury in a small glass retort. It soon blackens, and melts like animal matter, at the same time disengaging the cyanogen in abundance. This substance, which is the true radical of the acid under consideration, is possessed of the following properties: It is a permanently elastic fluid, of a strong and penetrating odor, and a density, when compared with air, of 1.8. It is inflammable, and burns with an intensely beau

tiful bluish flame, bordering on purple. It consists of nitrogen 29.654, and carbon 25.418, and is, therefore, a bicarburet of cyanogen. Though a compound body, it has a remarkable tendency to combine with elementary bodies. Thus it is capable of uniting with the simple non-metallic bodies, and evinces a strong attraction for the metals. It enters into direct combination with a few alkaline bases only, and these compounds are by no means permanent; hence it has no claim to be considered as an acid. To return to the properties of prussic acid, before we describe the other compounds of cyanogen. Barytes, heated in prussic acid, yields its barium to the cyanogen of the acid to form a cyanuret of barium, while the hydrogen of the acid and the oxygen of the earth unite to form water. Potash and soda behave in a similar manner, as respects their bases. Prussic acid is the most violent of all poisons. When a rod dipped into it is brought in contact with the tongue of an animal, death ensues before the rod can be withdrawn. Doctor Magendie has, however, introduced its employment into medicine. He found it beneficial against phthisis and chronic catarrhs. His formula is the following: Mix one part of the pure prussic acid with 8 of water by weight. To this mixture he gives the name of medicinal prussic acid. Of this he takes 1 gros, or 59 grs. troy, distilled water 1 lb., or 7560 grs., pure sugar 13 oz., or 7083 grs., and, mixing the ingredients well together, he administers a table-spoonful every morning and evening. One ten thousandth of prussic acid may be detected in water, by the addition of a few drops of solution of sulphate of iron. This test, though delicate, is surpassed by another, in which copper is used, and which will detect one twenty thousandth of prussic acid in water. To employ it, we must render the liquid containing the prussic acid slightly alkaline with potash, add a few drops of sulphate of copper, and, after wards, sufficient muriatic acid to redissolve the excess of oxide of copper. The liquid will appear more or less milky, according to the quantity of prussic acid present. Prussic acid is formed in a great many chemical operations; as, for instance, by transmitting ammoniacal gas over ignited charcoal contained in a tube; as also by heating in a glass tube, closed at one end, a mixture of oxalate of ammonia and oxalate of manganese. Prussic acid exists in the vegetable kingdom. The peculiar smell of bitter alnionds,

peach flowers, and the leaves of the laurocerasus, and of other vegetables, is owing to this substance. Prussic acid is often obtained from the peach and apricot kernels. The bark of the prunus padus contains much of it, and water distilled from it is capable of killing animals. Cyanogen unites with oxygen, and gives rise to a compound called cyanic acid. It consists of cyanogen 26 parts, and oxygen 16. It crystallizes in oblique rhomboidal prisms, which are colorless and transparent, insoluble in cold water, but are dissolved in hot water, as well as in the strong acids. Its most remarkable property is, that it allows of being boiled with the strong acids without undergoing decomposition or change. With the metallic oxides it forms salts that do not detonate. The cyanous acid contains just half as much oxygen as the cyanic, and is characterized by the facility with which it is resolved by water into carbonic acid and ammonia, and by the property of detonation, when in union with the oxides of mercury and silver. It is, in fact, the same substance as the fulminic acid, which is essential in the fulminating compounds of these metals. (See Fulmination, and Fulminating Silver, and Mercury, under these metals respectively.) We have also two compounds of the radical of prussic acid with chlorine, called the chloride of cyanogen, and the bichloride of cyanogen. The former of these is solid at 0 of Fahr. Between 5° and 10° 5', it is liquid, and also at 68°, under a pressure of four atmospheres; but, at the common pressure and temperature, it is a colorless gas. In the liquid state, it is as limpid and colorless as water. It has a very offensive odor, irritates the eyes, and is highly injurious to animal life. It consists of 36 parts chlorine and 26 of cyanogen. The bichloride of cyanogen contains twice as much chlorine as the preceding compound. It is solid at common temperatures; at 284° it fuses, and boils at 374°. Its vapor is acrid, and excites a flow of tears, and is injurious to life. Its odor is similar to that of chlorine. When boiled in water, it is converted into muriatic and cyanic acid. There is a compound of iodine and cyanogen of somewhat similar properties. It has a caustic taste and a penetrating odor. It is very volatile, and sustains a temperature above 212°, without decomposition. Bromide of cyanogen has also been formed, and resembles the last mentioned compound. Cyanogen forms an acid compound by a union with hydrogen and iron. It is

neither volatile nor poisonous in small quantities, and is destitute of odor. It is gradually decomposed by exposure to the light, forming prussic acid and prussian blue. It decomposes some salts of the more powerful acids: peroxide of iron, for example, unites with it in preference to sulphuric acid, unless the latter is concentrated. As this acid contains no oxygen, but simply consists of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and metallic iron, the name of ferrureted chyazic acid (chyazic, from the initials of carbon, hydrogen and azote) has been proposed; but the term ferrocyanic acid is more generally employed, Öf the salts formed by this acid, the most important in chemistry is the ferrocyanate of potash (formerly called the prussiate of potash). It is transparent, and of a beautiful lemon yellow color. In large crystals, it possesses a certain kind of toughness, and in thin scales, a degree of elasticity. Its solution is not affected by alkalies, but it is decomposed by almost all the salts of the permanent metals. The following table presents a view of the colors of the metallic precipitates thus obtained:

beautiful dye, called prussian blue, is a ferrocyanate of the peroxide of iron, and is always formed when ferrocyanic acid or its salts are mixed in a solution with a persalt of iron. The usual mode of manufacture is by mixing together one part of the ferrocyanate of potash, one part of copperas and four of alum, each previously dissolved in water. Prussian blue, mingled with more or less alumine, precipitates. It is afterwards dried on chalk stones in a stove. The ferrocyanate of potash employed in the process is prepared by heating to redness dried blood, or other animal matters, with an equal weight of pearlash, until the mixture has acquired a pasty consistence. The sulphocyanic acid is a compound of cyanogen, sulphur and hydrogen. Cyanogen forms two compounds with sulphur alone, and one with selenium.

PRUTH; a river of Europe, which rises in Galicia, in the Carpathian mountains, and empties into the Danube below Galacz. By the treaty of Bucharest between Russia and the Porte (May 6, 1812), the Pruth, from its entrance into Moldavia, was recognised as the boundary of the two empires, and all that part of Moldavia lying on the left bank, was ceded to Russia. In 1711, Peter the Great (see Peter I), after three days' disadvantageous fighting on the Pruth, was surrounded by the Turkish forces, and extricated only by a treaty, concluded through the prudence and promptitude of the empress. (See Catharine I.) By the treaty of Adrianople (September, 1829) it was stipulated that the Pruth should continue to form the boundary between the Russian and Turkish territories.

PRYNNE, William, a learned lawyer and antiquary, was born at Swanswick, in Somersetshire, in 1600, and was placed at Oriel college, Oxford, where he was graduated bachelor of arts, in 1620. He then removed to Lincoln's-inn to study the law, and became barrister, bencher, and reader of that society. His attendance upon the lectures of doctor Preston, a distinguished Puritan, strongly attached him to that sect, and he began to write as early as 1627, attacking the drinking of healths, love-locks, popery, and Arminianism, which he deemed the enormities of the age. In 1632, he published his work against theatrical exhibitions, entitled Histrio-Mastix; which, although licensed by archbishop Abbot's chaplain, yet, in consequence of some reflections upon female actors, that were construed to be levelled at the queen (who had acted in a pastoral