168 ACTIOK OF PLATINA AND MERCURY. 



produ6l he had obtained by this method, he was led to the 

 following important conclulions amongft others of iefs confe- 

 quence. I ft. That two metals, the feparate folutions of which 

 are not acted upon by a third body, may be adted upon, and 

 even reduced to the metallic ftate, by that fame body when 

 prefented to them in one and the fame folution. 



2dly. That mercury is capable of entering into combination 



with platina fo, that it cannot afterwards be feparated by fire. 



From the firft of thefe conclufions it is evident, that metals in 



their metallic flate are not incapable of chemical a6lion upon 



each other; and from the fecond, that mercury can be fixed 



(it is purpofely that I ufe the alchemical expreflion) by 



platina. 



Attempts of In addition to the chemifts abovementioned, I muft name 



Klaproth : not '^^ more who in Germany have been occupied by palladium. 



fuccefsful. M. TromfdorflF, in a letter to the authors of the journal 



already quoted, mentions his having made fome fruitlefs at« 



temps to form this combination ; and Klaproth, in a letter 



to M. Vauquelin pubJiflied in the Annalts de Chemie^ for 



Ventofe, an 12, hkewife fays that he could not fucceed in 



producing palladium. 



Remarks. The Mefs. Rofe and Gehlen, as well as M. Richter, had con- 



ex^elied to fuc- ^^^'^^^ ^""^"^ "^J Pap^^f & reliance on the fuccefs of their experi- 



ceed in a few ments, which no words of mine had authorised, and have 



tiuU, could not accufed me of enforcing the truth of my refults with a degree 



have attencied to b j a 



the author's of certainty wliich their obfervations do not countenance. 



paper; jyf^ Richter fuppofed that the formation of palladium was 



attended with no difficulty j and in general they have laid fo 



much flrefs upon this charge, that I fhould be inclined to 



think my Paper had not been read by thefe chemifts. In 



referring to it again, I find there is hardly a page in which I 



do not mention fome failure, and no experiment, of the very 



few which occafiopally lucceeded, is related without my 



fiating at the fame time that it was repeatedly unfuccefsful, 



As far as regards palladium, it is rather a narration of fruitlefs 



attempts than a defcription of an infallible procefs, and more 



likely to create averfion to the purfuit than to infpire a confi* 



He made many denco of fuccefs. The courfe of experiments which I had 



hundreds of ex- j^^ade, as well before as after reading my Paper to the Society, 



periments, and o j r j* 



fucceeded com- took me up more than two months, and employed me from 

 pleteiy but four twelvc to fixtccn houfs almoft cvcry day. 1 had frequently 



