:372 DR THOMAS ANDERSON ON CERTAIN PRODUCTS OF DECOMPOSITION 



insoluble in water, sparingly soluble in alcohol and ether. When heated it be- 

 comes black, an oil is evolved smelling exactly like that obtained from the mer- 

 cury compoimd and sulphuret of platinum is left behind, which requires a high 

 temperature to drive off all its sulphur, and leaves metallic platinum as a silver- 

 white mass. When treated with hydrosulphuret of ammonia, it is converted 

 into a brown powder, exactly like that obtained under similar circumstances 

 from allyl. 



The analysis of the yellow compound has not hitherto given results of a satis- 

 factory character. I have found the amount of platinum to oscillate between 

 43-06 and 49-66 per cent. The former of these was obtained from the most vola- 

 tile oil, the latter from that which boiled between 300° and 400° Fahr., and inter- 

 mediate results were obtained at intermediate temperatures. The results obtained 

 from the oil which boiled at a high temperatiu-e were remarkably constant ; thus 

 I have found, in different experiments, 49-00, 48-51 and 49-66 per cent, of pla- 

 tinum, which appeal' to indicate the presence of some compound of rather sparing 

 volatility. The precipitate obtained from the most volatile oil appears to be that 

 corresponding to the mercury compound which has just been described. Of it 

 I have been able only to perform a very incomplete analysis, which is insuffi- 

 cient to establish its constitution, especially as it is impossible to ascertain whether 

 it is a homogeneous substance. As the results, however, approximate to a for- 

 mula analogous to that of the mercury compound, I give the details, such as they 

 are. 



(9-155 gi-ains of the platinum compound gave 

 7-474 . . . carbonic acid, and 

 3-294 ... water. 



5-701 grains gave 2-455 grains of platinum, =43-06 per cent. 



These results approximate to a formula similar to that of the mercury com- 

 pound : — viz. 



(C, H, S„+PtClJ + (C, H, S,+PtS). 



10000 5757-7 



The analogy which those substances bear to allyl is exceedingly interesting, 

 as shewing the possibility of forming, by artificial processes, substances similar in 

 constitution to so remarkable a compound, which is not a product of decomposi- 

 tion, but exists ready formed in a variety of different vegetables, where it must 



