42 On Hydrogenium. 



this gave 15 lbs. weight of opium, and reahsed readily /ori^/- 

 tiuo shillings per pound in Melbourne.* The want of assist- 

 ance caused the remaining portion of the plants to be 

 worked over hurriedly. One product was entirely neglected, 

 namely, the collection of the seed ; this, on expression, 

 yields an oil useful in culinary purposes ; also, for paints, 

 being a drying oil, and for soaps, being soft and lubricating. 



We have here another instance of a valuable product 

 being obtained from off Victorian soil, and also, as in this 

 case, where the question of carriage is concerned, the locale 

 being in the mountain ranges, the cultivation of such 

 vegetation would prove of great service to the mountaineers, 

 being small in bulk, nil in carriage, and of high marketable 

 value. 



Aet. XIII. — On Hydrogenium. By Geo. Foord, Esq. 



[A popular notice, read at the Society's Annual Conversaaione on the 

 8th July, 1870.] 



By the kindness of Colonel Ward, R.E., I have the pleasure 

 of showing an object which will doubtless prove of considerable 

 interest to both visitors and members. It is a medal pre- 

 sented to Colonel Ward by Dr. Thos. Graham, the late Master 

 of the Mint ; and as coming from Graham's hands it is a 

 memento of one of Great Britain's greatest physical 

 philosophers. This, however, is only a portion of the 

 interest resident in this little metallic disc, for it is also a 

 tangible illustration of the very last of the life-long series 

 of Graham's remarkable discoveries. 



It is struck in an alloy of two rare metals : of palladium, 

 a scarce metal of the platinum group, discovered by our 

 countryman Wollaston, and of hydrogenium, or consoli- 

 dated metallized hydrogen gas, which it was the last triumph 

 of Dr. Graham's almost alchymical powers to transmute 

 and chain down into the form of a metallic alloy with 

 palladium. 



It has been often maintained on chemical grounds that 

 hydrogen gas is the vapour of a highly volatile metal, 

 (these are Graham's own words) ; and hydrogen is equivalent 

 to a metal in all its chemical relations. It replaces metals 

 in one class of chemical changes, and it is replaced in its 



* Opium imported into Victoria bears a duty of 10s. per lb. 



