CHLORPICRIN (Nitrochloroform), C.NO2.Cl3, the product of the
distillation of many nitro compounds (picric acid, nitromethane, &c.)
with bleaching powder; it can also be prepared by the action of
concentrated nitric acid on chloral or chloroform. A. W. von Hofmann
(_Annalen_, 1866, 139, p. 111) mixed 10 parts of bleaching powder into a
paste with cold water and added a solution (saturated at 30 deg. C.) of 1
part of picric acid. A violent reaction is set up and the chlorpicrin
distils over, generally without the necessity for any external heating.
It is a colourless liquid of boiling-point 112 deg. C., and of specific
gravity 1.692. It is almost insoluble in water, but is readily soluble
in alcohol; it has a sharp smell, and its vapour affects the eyes very
powerfully. Iron filings and acetic acid reduce it to trimethylamine,
whilst alcoholic ammonia converts it into guanidine, HN:C(NH2)2, and
sodium ethylate into ortho-carbonic ester, C(OC2H5)4. The corresponding
brompicrin is also known.

CHMIELNICKI, BOGDAN (c. 1593-1657), hetman of the Cossacks, son of
Michael Chmielnicki, was born at Subatow, near Chigirin in the Ukraine,
an estate given to the elder Chmielnicki for his lifelong services to
the Polish crown. Bogdan, after learning to read and write, a rare
accomplishment in those days, entered the Cossack ranks, was dangerously
wounded and taken prisoner in his first battle against the Turks, and
found leisure during his two years' captivity at Constantinople to
acquire the rudiments of Turkish and French. On returning to the Ukraine
he settled down quietly on his paternal estate, and in all probability
history would never have known his name if the intolerable persecution
of a neighbouring Polish squire, who stole his hayricks and flogged his
infant son to death, had not converted the thrifty and acquisitive
Cossack husbandman into one of the most striking and sinister figures of
modern times. Failing to get redress nearer home, he determined to seek
for justice at Warsaw, whither he had been summoned with other Cossack
delegates to assist Wladislaus IV. in his long-projected war against the
Turks. The king, perceiving him to be a man of some education and
intelligence, appointed him _pisarz_ or secretary of the registered
Cossacks, and he subsequently served under Koniecpolski in the Ukraine
campaign of 1646. His hopes of distinction were, however, cut short by a
decree of the Polish diet, which, in o