streams, called the Huatenay and Rodadero. The principal part of the city lies between these two streams, with its great plaza in the centre. On the W. side of the Huatenay are two more fine squares, called the Cabildo and San Francisco. The houses of the city are built of stone, their walls commonly showing the massive masonry of the Incas at the bottom, crowned with a light modern superstructure roofed with red tiles. The streets cross each other at right angles and afford fine vistas on every side. The principal public buildings are the cathedral, which is classed among the best in South America, the convent of San Domingo, which partly occupies the site of the great Temple of the Sun of the Incas, the cabildo or government-house, a university founded in 1598, a college of science and arts, a public library, hospital, mint and museum of Incarial antiquities. Cuzco was made the see of a bishopric soon after it was occupied by the Spaniards. The Church has always exercised a dominating influence in this region, and the city has many churches and religious establishments. There are a number of small manufacturing industries in Cuzco, including the manufacture of cotton and woollen fabrics, leather, beer, embroidery and articles of gold and silver. Its trade is not large, however, owing to the costs of transportation. The climate is cool and bracing, and the products of the vicinity include many of the temperate zone. A railway from Juliaca (a station on the line from Mollendo to Puno) to Cuzco was virtually completed early in 1908. This railway gives Cuzco an outlet to the coast, and also direct connexion with La Paz, the Bolivian capital. A branch of the Callao & Oroya railway is also projected southward to Cuzco, and reached Huancayo in 1908. Cuzco was the capital of a remarkable empire ruled by the Incas previous to the discovery of Peru, and it was one of the largest and most civilized of the native cities of the New World. It was captured by Pizarro in 1533, and it is said that its size and the magnificence of its principal edifices filled the Spaniards with surprise. It was for many years an object of contention among the Spanish factions, but ultimately the greater attractions of Lima and its own isolation diminished its importance.
The department of Cuzco is the second largest in Peru, having an area of 156,317 sq. m., and a population, according to a reduced official estimate of 1906, of only 328,980. It occupies an extremely mountainous region on the frontier of Bolivia, E. of the departments of Junin, Ayacucho and Apurimac, and extends from Loreto on the N. to Puno and Arequipa on the S. Its area, however, includes a large district E. of the Andes which is claimed by Bolivia, and the settlement of the dispute may materially diminish its size. The elevation of a large part of the department gives it a temperate climate and permits the cultivation of cereals and other products of the temperate zone. Cattle and sheep are produced in large numbers in some of the provinces, while in others mining forms the chief industry. On the eastern forested slopes and in the lower valleys tropical conditions prevail. The population is chiefly composed of Indians who form a sturdy, docile labouring class, but are in great part strongly disinclined to accept the civilization of the dominant white race.
CYANAMIDE, NC·NH2, the amide of normal cyanic acid,
obtained by the action of ammonia on cyanogen chloride,
bromide or iodide, or by the desulphurization of thio-urea
with mercuric oxide; it is generally prepared by the latter
process. It forms white crystals, which melt at 40° C., and are
readily soluble in water, alcohol and ether. Heated above
its melting point it polymerizes to di-cyandiamide (CN2H2)2,
which at 150° C. is transformed into the polymer n-tri-cyantriamide
or melamine (CN2H2)3, the mass solidifying. Nascent
hydrogen reduces cyanamide to ammonia and methylamine.
It gives mono-metallic salts of the type NC·NHM when treated
with aqueous or alcoholic solutions of alkalis. Di-metallic
salts are obtained by heating cyanates alone, e.g. calcium, or
cyanides in a current of nitrogen, e.g. barium.
Calcium cyanamide has assumed importance in agriculture since the discovery of its economic production in the electric furnace, wherein calcium carbide takes up nitrogen from the atmosphere to form the cyanamide with the simultaneous liberation of carbon. It may also be produced by heating lime or chalk with charcoal to 2000° in a current of air. The commercial product (which is known in Germany as “Kalkstickstoff”) contains from 14 to 22% of nitrogen, which is liberated as ammonia when the substance is treated with water; to this decomposition it owes its agricultural value. It appears that with soils which are not rich in humus or not deficient in lime, calcium cyanamide is almost as good, nitrogen for nitrogen, as ammonium sulphate or sodium nitrate; but it is of doubtful value with peaty soils or soils containing little lime, nor is it usefully available as a top-dressing or for storing.
CYANIC ACID AND CYANATES. Cyanic acid, CN·OH,
was discovered by F. Wöhler in 1824, and may be obtained by
distilling its polymeride, cyanuric acid, in a current of carbon
dioxide (F. Wöhler and J. v. Liebig, Berzelius Jahresberichte,
1827, 11, p. 84), the vapours which distil over being condensed
in a freezing mixture. It is a very volatile liquid of strong acid
reaction, and is only stable below 0° C. It has a smell resembling
that of acetic acid. At 0° C. it is rapidly converted into
a mixture of cyanuric acid, C3N3O3H3, and another polymer,
cyamelide (CNOH)x; this latter substance is a white amorphous
powder, insoluble in water. An aqueous solution of cyanic acid
is rapidly hydrolysed (above 0° C.) into a mixture of carbon
dioxide and ammonia. Cyanogen chloride, CNCl, may be
regarded as the chloride of cyanic acid. It may be prepared
by the action of chlorine on hydrocyanic acid or on mercury
cyanide. It is a very poisonous volatile liquid, which boils at
15.5° C. It polymerizes readily to cyanuric chloride, C3N3Cl3.
Caustic alkalis hydrolyse it readily to the alkaline chloride and
cyanate.
The salts of cyanic acid are known as the cyanates, the two most important being potassium cyanate (KOCN) and ammonium cyanate (NH4OCN). Potassium cyanate may be prepared by heating potassium cyanide with an oxidizing agent, or by heating potassium ferrocyanide with manganese dioxide, potassium carbonate or potassium dichromate (J. v. Liebig, Ann., 1841, 38, p. 108; C. Lea, Jahresb., 1861, p. 789; L. Gattermann, Ber., 1890, 23, p. 1224), the fused mass being extracted with boiling alcohol. It crystallizes in flat plates and is readily soluble in cold water. It is a somewhat important reagent, and has been used by Emil Fischer in various syntheses in the uric acid group (see Purin). Ammonium cyanate possesses considerable theoretical importance since the first synthetical production of an organic from inorganic compounds was accomplished by warming its aqueous solution for some time, urea being formed (F. Wöhler, Berzelius Jahresberichte, 1828, 12, p. 266). J. Walker and J. K. Wood (Jour. Chem. Soc., 1900, 77, p. 24) prepared pure ammonium cyanate by the union of gaseous ammonia and cyanic acid, special precautions being taken to keep the temperature below the point at which the salt is transformed into urea. It crystallizes in fine needles, which melt suddenly at about 80° C., then resolidify, and melt again at about 128° to 130° C. (this temperature being that of the melting point of urea). Substituted ammonias were also made to combine with cyanic acid, and it was found that the substituted ammonium cyanates produced pass much more readily into the corresponding ureas than ammonium cyanate itself. (On the constitution of cyanic acid see F. D. Chattaway and J. M. Wadmore, Jour. Chem. Soc., 1902, 81, p. 191.)
Esters of normal cyanic acid are not known, but those of isocyanic acid (HN·CO) may be prepared by the action of alkyl halides on silver cyanate, or by oxidizing the isonitriles with mercuric oxide. They are volatile liquids which boil without decomposition, and possess a nauseating smell. When hydrolysed with caustic alkalis, they yield primary amines (this reaction determines their constitution). C2H5NCO + H2O = C2H5NH2 + CO2. When heated with water they yield carbon dioxide and symmetrical dialkyl ureas; with ammonia and amines they form alkyl ureas; and with acid anhydrides they yield tertiary amides.
Ethyl isocyanate, C2H5NCO, was first prepared by A. Wurtz (Ann. chim., 1854 (3), 42, p. 43) by distilling a mixture of potassium
