1870.] CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. Ill 



prussiate, and has considerable deoxidizing powers. It appears 

 to be the active form of hydrogen, as ozone is of oxygen. 



" The general conclusions which appear to flow from this in- 

 quiry are, that in palladium fully charged with hydrogen, as in 

 the portion of palladium wire now submitted to the Royal Society, 

 there exists a compound of palladium and hydrogen in a propor- 

 tion which may approach to equal equivalents.^ That both 

 substances are solid, metallic, and of a white aspect. That the 

 alloy contains about 20 volumes of palladium united with a 

 volume of hydrogenium ; and that the density of the latter is 

 about 2, a little higher than magnesium, to which hydrogenium 

 may be supposed to bear some analogy. That hydrogenium has 

 a certain amount of tenacity, and possesses the electrical conduc- 

 tivity of a metal. And finally, that hydrogenium takes its place 

 among magnetic metals. The latter fact may have its bearing 

 upon the appearance of hydrogenium in meteoric iron, in associa- 

 tion with certain other magnetic elements." 



Metallic Hydrogen. — At a recent meeting of the Lyceum 

 of Natural History in New York, a paper was read by Dr. Loew, 

 Assistant in the College of New York, •' On the Preparation of 

 Hydrogen Amalgam." The researches of Graham went to show 

 that hydrogen could be alloyed with palladium, and that it was 

 also contained in meteoric iron. He condensed the hydrogen in 

 the palladium, and came nearer proving its metallic character than 

 any other person had done. Schoenbein, in his search for ozone, 

 found a method for making the peroxide of hydrogen which 

 brought him to the very threshold of discovering hydrogenium. 

 Schoenbein's experiment was this: — An amalgam of zinc and 

 mercury is violently agitated in water ; the water is then filtered, 

 and, on being examined with iodide of starch and protosulphate 

 of iron, will be found to contain peroxide of hydrogen or oxyge- 

 nated water. Dr. Leow has carried the investigation further, 

 and has, instead of oxidizing the hydrogen, succeeded in combining 

 it with the mercury. 



He takes an amalgam composed of no more than three or four 

 per cent, of zinc, and shakes it with a solution of bichloride of 

 platinum ; the liquid becomes black, and a dark powder settles to 

 the bottom. The contents of the flask are then thrown into 



* Proceedings of the Royal Society. 1868, p. 425, 



