

Mr. Phillips's Observations on them. ? M 1^ 



through various shades of brown, and finally became a fine 

 clear Indian red. The solution is stated to contain much 

 ioduret of ammonium : — this iodo-platinate of ammonium is 

 stated to consist of . . a P. Vj f 



5 atoms of[sesqui] iodide of platinum (285 X 5). . 1425 

 1 atom of ioduret of ammonium 144? 



i js*h> ?i noijs 1569 :V 8 * 



Observations on the above Compounds. — In the Dublin Jour- 

 nal for January last, Mr. Kane has published a notice of a 

 paper by M. Lassaigne, announcing that he also had prepared 

 and analysed two iodides of platina ; and Mr. Kane expresses 

 his anxiety to secure what he considers to be his prior claim to 

 the discovery of this compound. M. Lassaigne's paper is con- 

 tained in the Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. for October last, it has 

 not however long appeared. Supposing that the compounds ob- 

 tained by Mr. Kane and M. Lassaigne were similar (which they 

 are not), the priority unquestionably belongs to M. Lassaigne : 

 his paper in the Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. just alluded to, begins 

 thus: " Les combinaisons du platine avec l'iode n'avaient pas 

 encore ete obtenues ni etudiees, lorsque j'annoncai en 1829, 

 dans le numero de Juillet du Journal de Chimie medicate et de 

 Pharmacies qu'on pouvait preparer un iodure de platine a 

 proportions definies en faisant agir la solution d'iodure de po- 

 tassium sur celle de bi-chlorure de platine." M. Lassaigne 

 then states, that the iodide of platina, which he had formed, 

 appeared to consist of 4 atoms of iodine and 1 atom of platina, 

 and that he declared his intention of trying to procure an 

 iodide containing less iodine. In this, as I shall presently show, 

 he has since succeeded. 



It is evident that Mr. Kane never saw the Journal de Chimie 

 medicate for 1 829 ; for if he had, he could not have made the 

 following statement, headed Priority of Discovery of the 

 Iodide of Platinum: — "I would direct the attention of my 

 readers to a paper, published in this Journal in July, 1832, on 

 the iodide of platinum and its saline combinations, in which I 

 described that substance at length, developed the history of 

 the compounds it forms with the iodides of the basic [basic?] 

 metals, and enumerated all the important facts in its history. 

 It is a source of the highest gratification to me, that so eminent 

 a chemist as Lassaigne has followed the same train of research, 

 and fully established the accuracy of my investigations by their 

 close coincidence with his results." Mr. Kane adds, " there 

 is but one point on which we differ :" — now the following com- 

 parative statement will show that there is no one point on which 

 thev aoree. 



