Moyal Society. 65 



this and to some similar instances which occur in the hieroglyphical 

 researches of Dr. Young, that the granite monuments of Egypt had 

 imparted their own firmness and solidity to the conclusions drawn 

 from the records which have been sculptured upon them, or de- 

 posited within their recesses. 



Five lithographs from the pencil of Mr. Denny, the Sub-Curator 

 to the Society, illustrate this " Account : " the frontispiece repre- 

 sents, on a greatly. reduced scale, one side of the coffin and lid, the 

 long inscriplion on the latter, and the inner covering of the mummy; 

 in plate 2. are depicted, we presume of the actual dimensions, the 

 inscribed ornaments of red leather found on the bandages of the 

 head and face ; plate 3. contains the various formulae in which the 

 name of the embalmed person is included, and plate 4. the precatory 

 inscriptions, all reduced; plate 5. illustrates the anatomical exami- 

 nation, representing one of the kidneys, the heart, and the liver. All 

 are neatly, and we doubt not faithfully executed ; but the Anato- 

 mist, perhaps, might desire to have seen greater minuteness of de- 

 tail in the last-mentioned plate ; and the draughtsman has omitted 

 to attach a scale of dimensions to the reduced figures. [B.] 



[To be continued.] 



IX. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 

 "VrOV. 20, 1828. — A paper was read on a Method of rendering 

 -L^ Platina malleable. By Wm. Hyde Wollaston, M.D. F.R.S., &c. 



In this paper the author details the processes which, from long ex- 

 perience in the treatment of platina, he regards as tlie most effectual 

 for rendering that metal perfectly malleable. When it is purified by 

 solution in aqua regia, and precipitation with sal ammoniac, sufficient 

 care is seldom taken to avoid dissolving the iridium contained in the 

 ore by due dilution of the solvent. The writer states tiie degree of 

 dilution requisite for this purjjose, and the exact proportions in which 

 the acids are to be used. The digestion should be continued for three 

 or four days, with a heat which ought gradually to be raised ; and the 

 fine pulverulent ore of iridium allowed to subside completclv before 

 the sal ammoniac is added. The yellow precipitate thus obtained, 

 after being well washed and pressed, must be heated with the utmost 

 caution, so as to expel the sal ammoniac, but at the same time pro- 

 duce as little cohesion as possible among the particles of platina. It 

 w then to be reduced to powder, first by rubbing between the hands, 

 and next by grinding the coarser parts in a wooden mortar with a 

 wooden pestle, because the friction with any harder surface would, by 

 producing burnished surfaces, render them incapable of being welded 

 together by heat. The whole is then to be well wasiied in cleim water. 

 In this process, the mechanical diffusion through water is made to 

 answer the same purposes ns liquefaction by heat in the case of other 

 metals ; the earthy impurities being carried to the surface by their 



New Series. Xo], 5. No. 25. Jan. 1829. K superior 



