3l(;i Progress o/' Foreign Scknce. 



properties of an acid, than of a base ; as it unites in this case 

 easily with caustic alcali ; but not with acids, such as the sul- 

 phuric and muriatic. The alcaline combinations of this new me- 

 tallic oxide readily form double salts with acids ; those with the 

 above acids, are allcrystallizable, and when dissolved by the aid 

 of heat, yield, with ammonia, a precipitate of the metallic oxide. 

 These saline triple or quadruple combinations, do not always 

 afford with sulphuretted hydrogen, a brownish-yellow precipi- 

 tate ; but occasionally give one of a bluish tinge, which com- 

 municates its colour to the whole liquid. The hydro-sulphurets 

 of this metal, readily take fire with heat, and become white. 

 A simple voltaic pair, consisting of zinc and platinum, 

 throws down this new body from its solution, bluish-grey and 

 with a perfect metallic lustre. The metal deposited at the pla- 

 tinum wire, dissolves in dilute nitric acid, with disengagement 

 of gas. We must confess that the above account, containing 

 the substance of the Professor's details, seems to us very incon- 

 clusive ; and we should not be surprised to find that persulphate 

 of iron is concerned in these phenomena. 



The notice which was inserted in the Journal of Science and 

 the Arts, vol. ii. p. 385, relative to the transudation of melted 

 tin through cast iron, was slightly incorrect. M. Clement, the 

 author of the experiment, had formed the cylinder of a pump, 

 out of a copper tube, which being rather feeble, he wished to 

 strengthen, by an outer case of cast iron. The interval between 

 the two cylinders being filled with melted tin, this metal trans- 

 uded on the outer surface of the cast iron, in the cotton-like ef- 

 florescence, which burned at the flame of a candle. This ex- 

 periment shews the porosity of the cast iron employed, which 

 we suspect must have been of inferior quality, or ill-founded. 



IV. Inorganic chemical Compounds. — The French che- 

 mists and artists have been much occupied of late in repeating 

 and varying the experiments on the alloys of steel, which were 

 made in our laboratory, and which are recorded in the ninth vo- 

 lume of this Journal. M. J. B. Boussingault, has made several, 

 in the laboratory of the school of miners at Sainte-Etienne, par- 

 ticularly on the combination of silicium with platinum, and on the 

 presence of silicium in steel. When platinum was placed in a 

 crucible, lined with a paste composed of a mixture of powdered 

 charcoal, and a little clay, (the creuset brasque of the French 

 chemists) it always fused, in a powerful air furnace, into a button ; 

 and the fusion was more easy, when the metal was covered with 

 charcoal. It was observed that the platinum had increased a 

 little in weight. The properties of platinum thus fused, are the 

 following : it has a greyish-white appearance ; it is scarcely 

 afTected by a knife, and with difficulty by a file ; and has a 



