precipitated by sal ammoniac, or by nitre; but by prussiate of potash it gave a yellow or orange precipitate; and in the order of its affinities it was precipitated by mercury but not by silver.
These are the properties by which I originally distinguished palladium; and by the assistance of these properties I obtained a sufficient quantity for investigating its nature more fully.
There were, however, various reasons which induced me to relinquish the original process of solution in nitrous acid and precipitation by mercury; for although I found the metal thus obtained to be nearly pure, the necessity of agitating the solution with the mercury was very tedious, and the waste was also considerable; for in the first place it seemed that nitrous acid would not extract all the palladium from any quantity of the second metallic precipitate, neither would mercury reduce the whole of what was so dissolved. I therefore substituted a process dependent on another of its properties. I had observed that this metal differed from platina in not being precipitated from nitro-muriatic acid by nitre or by other salts containing potash; for although a triple salt is thus formed, this salt is extremely soluble, while that of platina on the contrary requires a large quantity of water for its solution. On that account a compound menstruum consisting of nitrate of potash dissolved in muriatic acid is unfit for the solution of platina, but dissolves palladium nearly as well as common nitro-muriatic acid in which there is no potash present.[1]
In five ounces of muriatic acid diluted with an equal quantity of water, I dissolved one ounce of nitre, and formed a solvent
- ↑ I have found that gold may also be dissolved with equal facility by the same solvent, and nearly in the same proportion. Ten grains of nitre added to a proper quantity of muriatic acid are sufficient for sixteen grains of either gold or palladium.
