OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 49 



form part of a complete system to the exposition of which he has 

 devoted a large work.* I must refer to this work for the arguments 

 which he adduces in support of his theory, since no abstract can do 

 them full justice. But I may be permitted here to notice one or two 

 points of fundamental importance. , 



Blomstrand begins with a discussion of the platinamines, our knowl- 

 edge of which has been so greatly increased by the splendid researches 

 of Cleve. He assigns arbitrarily to the chloride of Reiset's first base 

 the formula, — 



Pt 



J a— a— CI 

 I a— a— CI 



When chlorine is passed into a solution of this salt, the chloride of 



Gros's base is formed, and Blomstrand attributes to it again arbitrarily 



the formula, — 



CI 



a — a — CI 



a— a— CI 



CI 



Pt^ 



He employs the same mode of formulation in the case of the chlorides 

 of Reiset's second and Gerhardt's first base ; namely, — 



Ptl^~^ 

 ( a— ( 



Pt^-^ ^1 and Pt<; 



CI 



a— CI 

 a— CI 

 CI 



I admit that it seems most natural to attribute to the formula of the 



chloride of Reiset's first base the symmetrical formula, Pt -< p,' 



r a a a CI 



instead of the unsymmetrical formula, Pt < p. ; but even if 



we start from Pt ■< ^ ^ r^^' as from a fixed point, how is it possible to 

 ( a — a — LI 



say with certainty that under the action of chlorine there may not be 



a re-arrangement of the atoms of ammonia, so that we have for the 



chloride of Gros's base the structural formula, — 



f a— CI 



PtJ ^-^^ 

 ■^M a— Gl 



[ a— CI 



which has a higher degree of symmetry, or is, in other words, more 

 homogeneous than Blomstrand's formula, — 



* Chemie der Jetztzeit. Heidelberg, 1869. 

 VOL. XI. (n. s. 1]> 4 



