Weld Taylor.
Ammonio-nitrate of Silver.—Will any of your scientific correspondents explain the chemical cause of my inability to form the ammonio-nitrate of silver from a solution of nitrate of silver upon which albumenized paper has been previously floated? Having excited some albumenized paper on a forty-grain solution of nitrate of silver, I kept the solution which had not been consumed for the purpose of converting it into the ammonio-nitrate. But on dropping in the ammonia, not only did no precipitate take place, but the ammoniacal smell which usually gives place to the tarry odour remained. No albumen appeared to be dissolved from the paper, and the solution had lost none of its silver, which I subsequently collected by means of having formed a chloride. This has occurred to me more than once, and I call attention to it, as the investigation of it may lead to some new results.
Philo-Pho.
Replies to Minor Queries.
"Up, Guards, and at them!" (Vol. v., p. 426.; Vol. viii., pp. 111. 184.).—It will, I hope, close all debate on this anecdote, to state that the account I gave of it in Vol. v., p. 426., was from the Duke himself. I thought it very unlike him to have given his order in such a phrase, and I asked him how the fact was, and he answered me to the effect I have already stated.
C.
German Heraldry (Vol. viii., p. 150.).—Your Querist will probably find what he inquires for in Fursten's German Arms, published at Nurenberg in folio, 1696. The plates are sometimes divided and bound in three or four oblong volumes. The work known as Fursten's German Arms was commenced by Siebmacker, continued by Furst and Helman, and, in 1714, by Weigel. It is often quoted under these respective names; but of later years, more frequently under that of Weigel's Book of German Arms (Weigel Wapenbuch). It consists of six Parts, and professes to give the arms of the principal nobility of the Roman kingdom: dukes, princes, princely counts; lords and persons of position, foregone and existing, in all the provinces and states of the German empire. The Preface is by John David Köhler.
G.
In the year 1698 a book was published by J. A. Rudolphi, at Nurenberg, entitled Heraldica Curiosa. It is in German, a thin folio, with an innumerable quantity of engravings of the arms of German families.