other method of assay reports as full a strength in cyanide as if no zinc were present. Unfortunately, using both methods and accepting the difference in the results as a measure of the quantity of zinc present, or at any rate of the zinc present as cyanide, is not satisfactory. It appears best to use the method which ignores the zinc; and to determine the amount of zinc by a special assay of the liquor for this metal. The cyanide present as hydrogen cyanide or prussic acid (HCy) is practically useless as a gold solvent. Hence any report on the strength of a cyanide liquor which assigned to this the same value as its equivalent of alkaline cyanide would be misleading. On the other hand, it is "available cyanide" inasmuch as a proper addition of sodium hydrate[38] would restore its value. The question of the presence or absence of free prussic acid is involved in the larger one as to whether the cyanide solution has the right degree of alkalinity. The assay for "cyanide" should include the hydrogen cyanide with the rest. A rough test of the power of a cyanide liquor for dissolving gold may be made by floating a gold leaf on its surface and noting the time required for its solution. This test might, perhaps, be improved by taking, say, 20 c.c. of the liquor and adding three or four gold leaves so that the gold shall always be in considerable excess. The liquor should not be diluted as this will affect the result. It should be allowed to stand for a definite time, say at least two or three hours, or better, that corresponding to the time the liquor is left in contact with the ore in actual practice. The liquor should then be filtered off and, with the washings, be evaporated in a lead dish as in the assay of cyanide liquors for gold (p. 141). The gold obtained on cupelling, less any gold and silver originally present in the liquor, would be the measure of the gold dissolving power. THE ASSAY FOR CYANIDE BY TITRATION WITH SILVER NITRATE. The determination of the quantity of a cyanide is made by finding how much silver nitrate is required to convert the whole of the cyanide into potassium silver cyanide[39] or one of the allied compounds. It will be seen from the equation that 170 parts by weight of silver nitrate are required for 130 parts by weight of potassium cyanide. As already explained it is customary to report the cyanide-strength in terms of potassium cyanide, even when only the sodium salt is present. One gram of potassium cyanide will require 1.3076 gram of silver nitrate. _The standard solution of silver nitrate_ is made by dissolving 13.076 grams of silver nitrate in distilled water and diluting to 1 litre; 100 c.c. of such a solution are equivalent to 1 gram of potassium cyanide.[40]