Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 095.djvu/360

326 consisted merely of muriate of lime and muriate of palladium, without any appearance of decomposition.

When I found all my endeavours directed to that end wholly unsuccessful, I no longer entertained any doubt of this substance being a new simple metal, and accordingly published a concise delineation of its character; but by not directing the attention of chemists to the substance from which it had been extracted, I reserved to myself an opportunity of examining more at leisure many anomalous phenomena, that had occurred to me in the analysis of platina, which I was at a loss to explain, until I had learned to distinguish those peculiarities, that I afterwards found to arise from the presence of rhodium.

In my former Paper on that subject I also added some observations upon the properties and origin of palladium, describing only such a mode of obtaining it from platina as should avoid the introduction of any unnecessary ingredient which might possibly be misinterpreted, and omitted one of the most distinguishing properties of palladium, by means of which it may be obtained with the utmost facility by any one who possesses a sufficient quantity of the ore of platina.

To a solution of crude platina, whether rendered neutral by evaporation of redundant acid, or saturated by addition of potash, of soda, or ammonia, by lime or magnesia, by mercury, by copper, or by iron, and also whether the platina has or has not been precipitated from the solution by sal ammoniac, it is merely necessary to add a solution of prussiate of mercury, for the precipitation of the palladium. Generally for a few seconds,