CINNABAR (Ger. Zinnober), sometimes written cinnabarite, a name applied to red mercuric sulphide (HgS), or native vermilion, the common ore of mercury. The name comes from the Greek κιννάβαρι, used by Theophrastus, and probably applied to several distinct substances. Cinnabar is generally found in a massive, granular or earthy form, of bright red colour, but it occasionally occurs in crystals, with a metallic adamantine lustre. The crystals belong to the hexagonal system, and are generally of rhombohedral habit, sometimes twinned. Cinnabar presents remarkable resemblance to quartz in its symmetry and optical characters. Like quartz it exhibits circular polarization, and A. Des Cloizeaux showed that it possessed fifteen times the rotatory power of quartz (see Polarization of Light). Cinnabar has higher refractive power than any other known mineral, its mean index for sodium light being 3.02, whilst the index for diamond—a substance of remarkable refraction—is only 2.42 (see Refraction). The hardness of cinnabar is 3, and its specific gravity 8.998.
Cinnabar is found in all localities which yield quicksilver, notably Almaden (Spain), New Almaden (California), Idria (Austria), Landsberg, near Ober-Moschel in the Palatinate, Ripa, at the foot of the Apuan Alps (Tuscany), the mountain Avala (Servia), Huancavelica (Peru), and the province of Kweichow in China, whence very fine crystals have been obtained. Cinnabar is in course of deposition at the present day from the hot waters of Sulphur Bank, in California, and Steamboat Springs, Nevada.
Hepatic cinnabar is an impure variety from Idria in Carniola, in which the cinnabar is mixed with bituminous and earthy matter.
Metacinnabarite is a cubic form of mercuric sulphide, this compound being dimorphous.
For a general description of cinnabar, see G. F. Becker’s Geology of the Quicksilver Deposits of the Pacific Slope, U.S. Geol. Surv. Monographs, No. xiii. (1888). (F. W. R.*)
CINNAMIC ACID, or Phenylacrylic Acid, C9H8O2 or C6H6.CH:CH.COOH, an acid found in the form of its benzyl ester in Peru and Tolu balsams, in storax and in some gum-benzoins. It can be prepared by the reduction of phenyl propiolic acid with zinc and acetic acid, by heating benzal malonic acid, by the condensation of ethyl acetate with benzaldehyde in the presence of sodium ethylate or by the so-called “Perkin reaction”; the latter being the method commonly employed. In making the acid by this process benzaldehyde, acetic anhydride and anhydrous sodium acetate are heated for some hours to about 1800 C, the resulting product is made alkaline with sodium carbonate, and any excess of benzaldehyde removed by a current of steam. The residual liquor is filtered and acidified with hydrochloric acid, when cinnamic acid is precipitated, C6H5CHO+CH3COONa = C6H5CH:CH.COONa + H2O. It may be purified by recrystallization from hot water. Considerable controversy has taken place as to the course pursued by this reaction, but the matter has been definitely settled by the work of R. Fittig and his pupils (Annalen, 1883, 216, pp. 100, 115; 1885, 227, pp. 55, 119), in which it was shown that the aldehyde forms an addition compound with the sodium salt of the fatty acid, and that the acetic anhydride plays the part of a dehydrating agent. Cinnamic acid crystallizes in needles or prisms, melting at 133°C; on reduction it gives phenyl propionic acid, C6H5.CH2.CH2.COOH. Nitric acid oxidizes it to benzoic acid and acetic acid. Potash fusion decomposes it into benzoic and acetic acids. Being an unsaturated acid it combines directly with hydrochloric acid, hydrobromic acid, bromine, &c. On nitration it gives a mixture of ortho and para nitrocinnamic acids, the former of which is of historical importance, as by converting it into orthonitrophenyl propiolic acid A. Baeyer was enabled to carry out the complete synthesis of indigo (q.v.). Reduction of orthonitrocinnamic acid gives orthoaminocinnamic acid, C6H4(NH2)CH:CH.COOH, which is of theoretical importance, as it readily gives a quinoline derivative. An isomer of cinnamic acid known as allo-cinnamic acid is also known.
For the oxy-cinnamic adds see Coumarin.
CINNAMON, the inner bark of Cinnamomum zeylanicum, a
small evergreen tree belonging to the natural order Lauraceae,
native to Ceylon. The leaves are large, ovate-oblong in shape,
and the flowers, which are arranged in panicles, have a greenish
colour and a rather disagreeable odour. Cinnamon has been
known from remote antiquity, and it was so highly prized among
ancient nations that it was regarded as a present fit for monarchs
and other great potentates. It is mentioned in Exod. xxx. 23,
where Moses is commanded to use both sweet cinnamon (Kinnamon)
and cassia, and it is alluded to by Herodotus under the
name κιννάμωμον, and by other classical writers. The tree is
grown at Tellicherry, in Java, the West Indies, Brazil and Egypt,
but the produce of none of these places approaches in quality
that grown in Ceylon. Ceylon cinnamon of fine quality is a very
thin smooth bark, with a light-yellowish brown colour, a highly
fragrant odour, and a peculiarly sweet, warm and pleasing
aromatic taste. Its flavour is due to an aromatic oil which it
contains to the extent of from 0.5 to 1%. This essential oil,
as an article of commerce, is prepared by roughly pounding the
bark, macerating it in sea-water, and then quickly distilling the
whole. It is of a golden-yellow colour, with the peculiar odour
of cinnamon and a very hot aromatic taste. It consists essentially
of cinnamic aldehyde, and by the absorption of oxygen as
it becomes old it darkens in colour and develops resinous compounds.
Cinnamon is principally employed in cookery as a
condiment and flavouring material, being largely used in the
preparation of some kinds of chocolate and liqueurs. In medicine
it acts like other volatile oils and has a reputation as a cure for
colds. Being a much more costly spice than cassia, that comparatively
harsh-flavoured substance is frequently substituted
for or added to it. The two barks when whole are easily enough
distinguished, and their microscopical characters are also quite
distinct. When powdered bark is treated with tincture of iodine,
little effect is visible in the case of pure cinnamon of good quality,
but when cassia is present a deep-blue tint is produced, the
intensity of the coloration depending on the proportion of the
cassia.
CINNAMON-STONE, a variety of garnet, belonging to the
lime-alumina type, known also as essonite or hessonite, from
the Gr. ἣσσων, “inferior,” in allusion to its being less hard and
less dense than most other garnet. It has a characteristic red
colour, inclining to orange, much like that of hyacinth or
jacinth. Indeed it was shown many years ago, by Sir A. H.
Church, that many gems, especially engraved stones, commonly
regarded as hyacinth, were really cinnamon-stone. The difference
is readily detected by the specific gravity, that of hessonite being
3.64 to 3.69, whilst that of hyacinth (zircon) is about 4.6.
Hessonite is rather a soft stone, its hardness being about that of
quartz or 7, whilst the hardness of most garnet reaches 7.5.
Cinnamon-stone comes chiefly from Ceylon, where it is found
generally as pebbles, though its occurrence in its native matrix
is not unknown.
CINNAMUS [Kinnamos], JOHN, Byzantine historian, flourished in the second half of the 12th century. He was imperial secretary (probably in this case a post connected with the military administration) to Manuel I. Comnenus (1143–1180), whom he accompanied on his campaigns in Europe and Asia Minor. He appears to have outlived Andronicus I., who died in 1185. Cinnamus was the author of a history of the period 1118–1176, which thus continues the Alexiad of Anna Comnena, and embraces the reigns of John II. and Manuel I., down to the unsuccessful campaign of the latter against the Turks, which ended with the disastrous battle of Myriokephalon and the rout of the Byzantine army. Cinnamus was probably an eye-witness of the events of the last ten years which he describes. The work breaks off abruptly; originally it no doubt went down to the death of Manuel, and there are indications that, even in its present form, it is an abridgment. The text is in a very corrupt state. The author’s hero is Manuel; he is strongly impressed with the superiority of the East to the West, and is a determined opponent of the pretensions of the papacy. But he cannot be reproached with undue bias; he writes with the
