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XV. Contributions to the Chemical History of Palladium and Platinum. 
By Robert Kane, M.D., M.R.I.A. Communicated by Francis Baily, Esq., V.P.R.S . , 
8$c. 8$c. 8$c. 
Received February 24, — Read March 17, 1842. 
NOTWITHSTANDING the attention which has been paid to the properties of the 
noble metals by the chemists who have made their compounds an object of study, 
their history is yet very far from the state of completeness, to which so many depart- 
ments of inorganic chemistry have recently been brought. The researches hitherto 
made have had for their objects generally, either the more direct or certain extraction 
of the metal from the state of combination in which it naturally exists, or the exami- 
nation of some few compounds, which were remarkable for their beauty or facility of 
production, or important from their applications. But the general history of these 
metals has as yet been but imperfectly studied, as may be seen by reference to the 
meagre account of their salts and other compounds, which even the most extended 
systematic works present. It is my object in this and in some subsequent papers, to 
examine specially into the composition and properties of the compounds of palladium, 
platinum, and gold, and to endeavour to ascertain how far they agree, and in what 
they differ, as to the laws of combination to which these compounds are subjected. 
As this paper may be considered but as the commencement of this work, the general 
bearings of which may change according to the progress of our knowledge, I shall 
not attempt to give to it any systematic form, or to arrange the bodies to be described 
in any order or classification, except that all the compounds of the same metal will 
in each memoir be described together. 
It is my duty, at this moment, to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to the 
Council of the Royal Society, which most kindly placed in my hands, for the purposes 
of these investigations, a portion of the palladium that had been bequeathed to the 
Society by its illustrious discoverer, to be used in the advancement of science. Should 
the results I have obtained, in endeavouring to extend and render more accurate our 
knowledge of the compounds of that remarkable metal, appear such as to justify that 
appropriation, for which when made I feel I had little claim, I shall be fully rewarded 
for the time and labour they have required, and use my best efforts to extend them 
by subsequent researches. 
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