66 



UPON A NEW COMPOUND OF THE DEUTO-CHLORIDE OF PLATINUM, ETC. 



The proportions of the several constituents of the salt, as respectively calcu- 

 lated, in accordance with one of the above formulse, and as derived from our 

 experiments, will stand as follows ;— ' 





By Exper. 



No. of At, 



By 



Calculation 



Platinum, . . . 



. . 41,26 



5 





41.82 



Chlorine, . . . 



. . 43.89 



15 





45.01 



Hydrogen, . . . 



. . .42 



5 





.43 



Nitric Oxide, . . 



. . 4.98 



2 





5.11 



Water, .... 



. . 7.66 



10 





7.63 



98.21 



100.00 



The agreement here exhibited is as close as could be expected when we 

 advert to the complicated nature of the salt, and the diiSculties which attend 

 its preparation and analysis. 



In conclusion, we may be allowed to hope that the compound here described 

 may cast some light on the chemical nature of aqua regia, and on the question 

 of its mode of action in dissolving the metals. 



Note. — Since the above article was read, we have received Poggendorf^s Annalen, vol. xlvii., 

 containing an interesting paper by H. Rose, of Berlin, in which he has shown that anhydrous 

 sulphuric acid absorbs nitric oxide, forming a neutral sulphate, in which the oxygen in the sul- 

 phuric acid is three times that in tlie nitric oxide. From this he infers that the nitric oxide acts 

 the part of a true base; a conclusion to which we have arrived in the present paper, where we 

 regard the compound examined by us as a double salt, in which nitric oxide is one of the bases. 

 The compound described by Rose is decomposed by water in exactly the same manner as that 

 |iere investigated. 



