Buffon's Natural History. Volume 10 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History. Volume 10 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
2. I, as well as Comte de Milly, found gold sand in platina; it is
readily discovered by its colour, and because it is not magnetical; but
I own that I never perceived the globules of mercury which he states to
have done; yet I do not mean therefore to deny their existence, only
that it appears to me that the sand of gold meeting with the globules
of mercury, in the same matter, they might be soon amalgamated, and not
retain the colour of gold, which I have remarked in all the gold sand
that I could find in half a pound of platina; besides, the transparent
globules, which I have just spoken of, resemble greatly the globules of
live and shining mercury, insomuch that at the first glance it is easy
to be deceived in them.
3. There were by no means so many tarnished and rusty parts in my
first platina as in that of Comte de Milly's, nor was it properly a
rust which covered the surface of those ferruginous particles, but a
black substance produced by fire, and perfectly similar to that which
covers the surface of burnt iron. But my second platina, that which I
had from the royal cabinet, had a mixture of some ferruginous parts,
which under the hammer were reduced into a yellow powder, and had all
the characters of rust. This platina therefore of the royal cabinet,
and that of Comte de Milly, resembling in every respect, it is probable
that they proceeded from the same part, and by the same road. I even
suspect that both had been sophisticated and mixed nearly one half with
foreign crystalline and ferruginous rusty matters, which are not to be
met with in the natural platina.
4. The production of Prussian blue by platina appears evidently to
prove the presence of iron in those parts even of this mineral which
are the least attractable to the magnet, and at the same time confirms
what I have advanced on the intimate mixture of iron in its substance.
The flowing of platina by spirits of nitre, also proves that although
it has no sensible effervescence, this acid attracts the platina in an
evident manner; and the authors who have asserted the contrary, have
followed their common track, which consists in looking on all actions
as null which do not produce an effervescence. These second experiments
of the Comte de Milly would appear to me very important, if they
succeeded always alike.
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