latclligcnce and Mi scellaneoiis Articles, 13-5 



wlien properly purified by a solution of potash and water, acts like 

 spongy platina, and possesses such remarkable oxidizing properties, 

 that ic not only converts formic acid into carbonic acid, and alcohol 

 into acetic acid, but even the osmium which it contains into osmic 

 acid. This latter is soon formed when the powder of platina is dried, 

 and may be separatelj^ obtained by distilling the platina with a little 

 water. It is immediately reduced by alcohol, and consequently is 

 not obtained amongst the products of the oxidation of this liquid. 



This method, recommended thirty years sir^ce by Descotils, is 

 an excellent one for the preparation of platina in a state of minute 

 division, and is chiefly applicable in working large masses of native 

 platina like tiiose of the Oural, and also for the preparation of the 

 jjpongy platina employed for absorbing oxygen and for the juoduc- 

 tion of acetic acid. — jQur. de Pharnmcie, July 1836. 



-ON THE DECOLORIZING COMBINATIONS OF CHLORINE. 



M. Martens, in a former memoir on this subject already published, 

 offered experiments and arguments which tended to show tliat the 

 decolorizing chlorides ought to be regarded as feeble comi)iniitions 

 of chlorine and basic oxides. Sonie short time after this M. Balard, 

 of Montpellier, again raised a doubt on the question, and by his 

 discovery of hypochloroiis acid and of decolorizing hypochlorites, 

 appeared to have proved that the opinion M. Martens had advo- 

 cated was incorrect ; that is to say, according to M. Balard, these 

 bleaching compounds ought to be considered as mixtures of hypo- 

 chlorites and chlorides, agreeably to the hypothesis of Berzelius. 

 Returning to this first memoir and comparing the propjTties of 

 hypochlorites with the decolorizing chlorides, M. Martens has ar- 

 rived Ht results which, in his opinion, do not permit us to confound 

 the two compounds, and which serve to confirm the former view 

 of their composition as chlorides of oxides. We now proceed to 

 the principal facts contained in the present memoir, and which 

 the author considers he has established by his experiments. 



1st. The binoxide of chlorine of some chemists must be consi- 

 dered as an acid under the name of chlorous acid : it forms com- 

 pounds with the compound alkaline oxides (oxides alcalins com- 

 poses (alkalis ?)), which may be called chlorites, and which are de- 

 composed by almost all the acids, with effervescence and disen- 

 gagement of chlorous acid. 



2nd. The chlorites may be obtained in the solid state by evapo- 

 ration, without decomposing, taking care that they have excess of 

 base, or, rather, that they possess an alkaline action. When they 

 are saturated so as to indicate neutrality with litmus paper, their 

 solutions, when they are concentrated or evaporated, are decom- 

 posed into chlorates and chlorides, like the chlorides of oxides, 

 with the difference of affording in proportion much more chlorate 

 than the latter. 



3rd. The chlorites possess an extremely powerful decolorizing and 

 oxidizing action, like the chlorides of oxides and the hypochlorites 

 of M, baJard. Thpse which are not saturated with chlorous acid 



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