Some very uncommon circumstances are attendant on the solution of platina:
1st. The immense quantity of acid required for the solution of a minute quantity of platina.
2d. The great quantity of gas produced during the solution of this minute quantity.
3d. The intense red color of the solution, and its perfectly acid properties after it ceases to act upon the metal.
[152] For if nitrous oxide had been formed, it would have been decomposed by the hydrogene.
[153] Experiments and observations, vol. ii. pag. 81.
[154] The experiments of Berthollet have clearly proved the perfect acidity of this substance.
[155] The Dutch chemists have asserted, that mixture with ammoniac prevents the absorption of nitrous oxide by water, either wholly or partially. Journal de Physique, t. xliii. part ii. pag. 327. It is difficult to account for their mistake.
[156] Sulphureous acid saturates more potash than sulphuric acid, so that most probably during the conversion of sulphite of potash into sulphate, portions of sulphureous acid are disengaged.
[157] Hence we learn that sulphite of potash, when strongly heated, does not decompose nitrous oxide, even in the nascent state.