35° Mr. Davy’s Electrochemical Researches on 
the alkaline menstruum. At the moment of contact there 
was a most intense light; when the rod was plunged into the 
liquid an effervescence took place, and globules which burnt 
with a brilliant flame rose to the surface, and swam upon it in 
a state of combustion. In a few minutes, when the mixture 
was cool, the platina bar was removed : after as much as pos- 
sible of the alkali and silex had been detached from it by a 
knife, there remained brilliant metallic scales round it, which 
instantly became covered with a white crust in the air, and 
some of which inflamed spontaneously. The platina appeared 
much corroded, and of a darker tint than belongs to the pure 
metal. When it was plunged into water it strongly effer- 
vesced : the fluid that came from it was alkaline; when a few 
drops of muriatic acid were added to the solution, a white 
cloudiness occurred, which various trials demonstrated, de- 
pended upon the presence of silex. 
A similar mixture of potash and alumine was experimented 
upon in the same manner, and the results were perfectly ana- 
logous ; there adhered to the rod of platina a film of a metallic 
substance, which rapidly decomposed water, and afforded a 
solution which deposited alumine by the action of an acid. 
I tried several forms of this experiment, with the hopes of 
being able to obtain a sufficient quantity of the metallic matter 
from the platina, so as to examine it in a separate state ; but 
I was not successful. It was always in superficial scales, which 
oxidated, becoming white and alkaline, before it could be de- 
tached in the air ; it instantly burnt when heated, and could 
not be fused under naphtha or oil. 
■A tried similar experiments with mixtures of soda and 
