io 6 Mr. Chenevix on the Action of 
and the new metal. Whether this new substance does or does 
not play a principal part in the formation of palladium, could 
not be ascertained at the time my experiments were made, 
because the new metal itself was not then known. But from 
all that Mess. Fourcroy and Vauquelin have stated, in such of 
their different memoirs upon this subject as I have seen, the 
grounds of their supposition have not appeared. May we not 
refer their opinion, then, to that common propensity of the 
mind, against which M. Fourcroy has himself warned us 
with equal justness and eloquence on another occasion, namely, 
a proneness to be allured by novelty beyond the bounds of 
rational belief, and to convert principles which are new into 
principles of universal influence. 
Mess. Rose and Geiilen * were the first among the German 
chemists who instituted experiments upon palladium ; and M. 
Richter has also published a paper on the same subject. 
The first attempt of Mess. Rose and Gehlen to form pal- 
ladium was by the precipitation of a mixed solution of platina 
and mercury by green sulphate of iron. Their result was pre- 
cisely that which I had observed when my operations failed 
altogether, and which of course was the most frequent. This 
method was repeated twice. The second time the precipitate 
of platina and mercury was boiled with muriatic acid, in order 
to free it from iron; but the latter trial was not more success- 
ful than the former. 
Their third experiment was, what they have called, a repe- 
tition of that in which I had obtained palladium by passing a 
* Neucs Algemeines Journal der Cbemic beraurgegeben von IJermstadi, 
Klaproth, Richter, Scherer, Tromsdorf, und Gehlen. Ersten bandes 
funfles beft. 
