Mr. Davy on a new fulminating platinum. 137 
compounds. Gold and platinum appear to be more closely 
related to each other than they are to silver, or to any of the 
other metals ; though separated by a number of marked dis- 
tinctions, they yet possess in common, many points of resem- 
blance. They are both soluble in the same menstrua, and 
can only with difficulty be made to unite with oxygene, chlo- 
rine or sulphur ; and their oxides form peculiar triple com- 
pounds with acid and alkaline or earthy substances. From 
these analogies, and especially the last, it might be pre- 
sumed that platinum, like gold, by particular treatment, was 
capable of furnishing a fulminating compound. Since plati- 
num has been known to chemists, different attempts have 
been made to produce such a compound, but without effect. 
On the discovery of fulminating mercury by Mr. Howard, 
he endeavoured to communicate fulminating properties to 
compounds of platinum, by means of alcohol, but his trials 
were unsuccessful. I have to a certain extent succeeded in 
this way, and my attempts have led to the observation of 
some new facts. I have also obtained a new compound of 
platinum, analogous in its properties and composition to annum 
fulminans, and which, in consequence, I shall venture to 
designate by the term fulminating platinum. I have, indeed, 
already noticed a peculiar compound of platinum under this 
name,* but the term should be restricted to the new com- 
pound, on account of its superior fulminating properties. 
This fulminating platinum serves to extend the existing ana- 
logies between the noble metals, and fills up a vacant space 
in their chemical history. In the present communication, I 
shall endeavour to describe this substance ; but before I enter 
* Philosophical Magazine, Vcl. 40. 
T 
MDCCCXVII. 
