106 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1757. 



and which discovers this different appetite of union so much the more remark- 

 ably, as the two metals have been the more intimately combined : — as they fur- 

 ther exhibit platina dissolved in liquors incapable of holding gold suspended, — 

 gold dissolved in liquors incapable of holding platina suspended, — gold totally 

 precipitated by substances, which precipitate no particle of platina, — and gold, 

 when mixed \)er minima with platina, perfectly recovered from it by these means, 

 without increase as well as without diminution : — it follows that platina is not, 

 as some believe, gold naturally debased by the admixture of some other me- 

 tallic body, but a metal of a peculiar kind, essentially different from all the others. 

 Before the discriminating characters of platina were discovered, such a notion 

 was highly plausible, and direct experiment seemed to contirm it : a portion of 

 the platina might be separated in the process ; a quantity of gold mixed with the 

 remainder, in order to collect the gold supposed to be contained in it ; the 

 mixture submitted to operations, which gold alone was supposed capable of with- 

 standing ; and the augmentation, which the noble metal still retained, held to 

 be true gold gained from the platina. 



The methods of trial above related will, it is presumed, be sufficient to un- 

 deceive those who may have been imposed on by such appearances, and betrayed 

 into the practice of unintended frauds : to convince them that all they have 

 gained from platina, after the most laborious attempts to divest it of its imagi- 

 nary coat, is no other than platina still : and, which is of more extensive utility, 

 to distinguish all the abuses, that may be made with this metal, and restore the 

 gold, so debased, to its original purity and value. 



XXI. On the Temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli in the Kingdom of Naples. By 

 the Rev. John Nixon, M. A., F. R. S. p. l66. 



Before entering on a more particular consideration of this noble piece of an- 

 tiquity, it may not be improper to premise the general account (and indeed the 

 only one yet published,) given of it by Messrs. Cochin and Bellicard, in a little 

 treatise printed at Paris in 1755. These gentlemen acquaint us that in 1749 

 there v/ere only 3 pillars of this building visible, and that they were buried half 

 way within the ground : but that soon after, workmen being employed by order 

 of the king of the Two Sicilies to dig at the place, they came to the pedestals of 

 those pillars ; and at length discovered the building to have been a temple, which, 

 as it was judged by the principal idol found there, and some other circumstances, 

 was dediciited to Serapis. They tell us further, that many statues and vases of 

 excellent workmanship had been taken out of the ruins ; and that the whole 

 temple was extremely magnificent, being built, or cased throughout, with marble, 

 even to the parts appropriated to the meanest offices. 



In order to form any conjecture concerning the antiquity of the building 



