OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 49 



form part of a complete system to the exposition of wliieh lie has 

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

 which ho adduces in support of his theory, since no ahstract can do 

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

 points of fundamental importance. 



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

 edge of which has been so greatly increased by the sph-ndid researches 

 of Cl^ve. He assigns arbitrarily to the chloride of Keiset's iirst base 

 the formula, — 



u fa-a-Cl 

 ^t la— a-Cl 



AVhen 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 jReiset's second and Gerhardt's first base ; namely, — 



Pt-}'^~S and Pt< 



( a — Li 



rci 



a— Cl 

 a— CI 

 Cl 



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



chloride of Reiset's first base the symmetrical fonnula, Pt < ' ^,' 



( a — a — K^i 



c j^ a a Cl 



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



( f^\ 



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



(a — a — Cl ^ ^ 



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, — 



fa— Cl 

 '^,. Ja-Cl 



a— Cl 



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. 8. id 4 



