260 Mr. Stodart and Mr. Faraday 
The alloy of steel and palladium, acted on by dilute sul- 
phuric acid, and boiled in that acid, left a powder which, when 
the charcoal was burnt from it, and the iron partly separated 
by cold muriatic acid, gave on solution in hot muriatic acid, 
or in nitro-muriatic acid, a muriate of palladium ; the solution, 
when precipitated by prussiate of mercury, gave prussiate of 
palladium ; and a glass plate moistened with it and heated to 
redness, became coated with metallic palladium. 
The residuum of the rhodium alloy obtained by boiling in 
diluted sulphuric acid, had the combustible matter burnt off, 
and the powder digested in hot muriatic acid : this removed 
the iron ; and by long digestion in nitro-muriatic acid, a mu- 
riate of rhodium was formed, distinguishable by its colour, 
and by the triple salt it formed with muriate of soda. 
To analyse the compound of steel with iridium and osmium, 
the alloy should be acted on by dilute sulphuric acid, and the 
residuum boiled in the acid ; the powder left is to be collected 
and heated with caustic soda in a silver crucible to dull red- 
ness for a quarter of an hour, the whole to be mixed with 
water, and having had excess of sulphuric acid added, it is 
to be distilled, and that which passes over condensed in a 
flask : it will be a solution of oxide of osmium, will have 
the peculiar smell belonging to that substance, and will 
give a blue precipitate with tincture of galls. The portion 
in the retort being then poured out, the insoluble part is to 
be washed in repeated portions of water, and then being 
first slightly acted on by muriatic acid to remove the iron, 
is to be treated with nitro-muriatic acid, which will give a 
muriate of iridium. 
In these analyses, an experienced eye will frequently 
