Mr. Chenevix on the Action , &c. 105 
Wollaston very early denied the accuracy of my inquiries. 
But as he has not published his experiments, I have had no 
opportunity of discussing them. His opinion, however, must 
have such weight in the learned world, that I should have 
neglected a material fact in the history of palladium, if I had 
not mentioned it in this place. 
In France the compound nature of palladium has been more 
generally credited. When the National Institute was informed 
of my experiments, a report was ordered to be made upon 
them, and M. Guyton was the person appointed for the 
purpose. He repeated some of the experiments, and produced 
some of his results. His general conclusion was the same as 
mine. 
Messrs. Vauquelin and Fourcroy then undertook the 
subject, and they were led by it to the confirmation of the 
recent discovery of Mons. Descotils. The existence of a 
new metal, which that chemist had found in crude platina, 
received great sanction from their experiments ; and thus the 
discussion upon palladium has established a fact which will be 
considered as interesting, but which would be much more so, 
were we not already overburthened with substances which our 
present ignorance obliges us to acknowledge as simple. 
No sooner were these celebrated chemists convinced of the 
existence of a new metal in platina, than they concluded that 
it must play a principal part in the composition of palladium. 
Shortly after this, in a note to a letter from M. Proust to M. 
Vauquelin, in which M. Proust expresses his astonishment 
concerning all he has read upon palladium, Mess. Fourcroy 
and Vauquelin further declare, as their opinion, that this com- 
pound metal does not contain mercury, but is formed of platina 
MDCCCV. P 
