Platlna and Mercury upon each other. 31 



submitted the product he had obtained by this method, he 

 was led to the t'oUowing important conclusions, amongst 

 others of less consequence: — 1st, That two metals, the se- 

 parate solutions ol" which are not acted upon by a third 

 body, may be acted upon, and even reduced to the metallic 

 state, by that same body when presented to them in one 

 and the same solution. 



2dlv, That mercury is capable of entering into combina- 

 tion with platina, so that it cannot afterwards be separated 

 by fire. From the first of these conclusions it is evident 

 that metals in their metallic state are not incapable of che- 

 mical action upon each other; and from the second, that 

 mercury can be fixed (it is purposely that I use the alche- 

 mical expression) by platina. 



In addition to the chemists above mentioned, I must 

 name two more who in Germany have been occupied bv 

 palladium. M. Tromsdorflf, in a letter to the authors of 

 the journal already quoted, mentions his having made some 

 fruitless attempts to form this combination; and M. Klap- 

 roth, in a letter to M. Vauquelin, published in the yl;inales 

 de Chimie for Ventose, an 12, likewise says that he could 

 not succeed in producing palladium. 



Messrs. Rose and Gehlen, as well as M. Richter, had 

 conceived from mv paper a reliance on the success of their 

 experiments, which no words of mine had authorized, and 

 have accused me of enforcing the truth of my results with 

 a degree of certainty which their observations do not coun- 

 tenance. M. Richter supposed that the formation of pal- 

 ladium was attended with no difficulty; and in general 

 they have laid so much stress upon this charge, that I should 

 be inclined to think mv paper liad not been read by these 

 chemists. In refeiring to it again, I find there is hardly a 

 page in which I do not mention some failure; and no ex- 

 periment, of the verv few which occasionally succeeded, is 

 related without my staling at the same time that it was re- 

 peatedly unsuccessful. A^ far as regards palladium, it is 

 rather a narration of fruitless attempts than a description of 

 an inhilhbk* process, and more likely to create aversion to 

 the pursuit than to inspire a confidence of success. The 

 course of experiments which I had made, as well before as; 

 after reading my paper to the society, took me up more 

 than two months, and employed me from twelve to sixteen 

 hours almost every day. I had frequently seven or eiglit 

 operations in the forge to perform daily, and I do not ex- 

 aggerate the number of attempts \ made during this time, 

 as well in the dry as in the humid way, in stating them to 



have 



