XVII. On a new metal, found in crude platina

Abstract

Notwithstanding I was aware that M. Descotils had ascribed the red colour of certain precipitates and salts of platina, to the presence of a new metal; and although Mr. Tennant had obligingly communicated to me his discovery of the same substance, as well as of a second new metal, in the shining powder that remains undissolved from the ore of platina; yet I was led to suppose that the more soluble parts of this mineral might be deserving of further examination, as the fluid which remains after the precipitation of platina by sal ammoniac, presents appearances which I could not ascribe to either of those bodies, or to any other known substance. My inquiries having terminated more successfully than I had expected, I design in the present Memoir to prove the existence, and to examine the properties, of another metal, hitherto un­known, which may not improperly be distinguished by the name of Rhodium , from the rose-colour of a dilute solution of the salts containing it.