CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES. 
363 
mixed with another portion of sulphur, and heated again, this Oxidci of pal- 
sulphuret had received no accession of weight. Whence it 
follows, that 100 parts of palladium were combined with 28‘15 
parts of sulphur. The sulphuret of palladium, when exposed 
to a moderate heat, became covered with a red crust ; at the 
same time discharging sulphureous Rcid gas. The crust I found 
lo be composed of the sub-sulphate of the oxide of palladium. 
This subsalt was reduced in a white heat, 
I dissolved some palladium in nitro-muriatic acid, which 
contained hardly any more of the nitric acid than what was 
necessary to furnish oxigen to the metal. The solution, when 
evaporated to drynesss, gave a neutral muriate, which I again 
dissolved in water. I digested, during several days, in this 
solution two grammes of mercury. It was evident, from the 
colour, that a considerable portion of the palladium still le- 
mained dissolved, and consequently that murias hydrogyrosns 
(mercurius dulcis) had not been formed, I separated the 
metallic precipitate from the liquid, and washed it well. It 
formed a greyish metallic powder, weighing 1*441 gr. 
This I put into a small retort, and heated it in the flame of a 
spirit lamp, where I kept it heated to a red heat during half an 
hour. A small quantity of watery vapour was first of all ex- 
tricated, and afterwards a little mercury; but which did not 
continue increasing. Having taken the water from the neck of 
the retort, I found that this had lost 0 OOd grains of its weight, 
and afterward, when separated from the mercury, that it had 
lost 0 1 13 gr. The mercury had therefore weighed 0*112 
gr. The metallic powder in the bulb of the retort had 
suft'ered no change in its appearance. I put it into a small 
(creuset de platina), and exposed it to the greatest heat 1 could 
possibly produce, keeping it in the fire for half an hour. It 
left as a residuum a metallic mass of a silvery whiteness, very 
contracted, and very malleable and flexible. It weighed 0*/073 
gr. and lost nothing further of its weight by a subsequent 
exposure to the fire. The precipitate thus obtained (and weigh- 
ing 1*441 grains) had therefore been composed of 0 7073 
grains of palladium, of 0 112 grains of mercury mechanically 
adhering. 
