A fulminating silver may be made by the following process: the silver must first be dissolved in pale nitrous acid, then precipitated by lime-water, dried, and exposed to the air three days. It must then be washed in caustic volatile alkali, after which the fluid must be decanted, and the black powder left to dry in the air. The slightest friction will cause this powder to fulminate. It is said, that even a drop of water falling upon it will produce this effect; so that it ought to be made only in very small quantities, and managed with the greatest caution. Most of the metals precipitate silver. That by mercury may be made to assume the form of a tree, called _arbor Dianae_. Silver is found native in Peru; and the ores frequently contain sulphur, or arsenic, or both. _Of Platina._ Platina is a metal lately discovered in the gold mines of Mexico, where it is found in small particles, never exceeding the size of a pea, mixed with ferruginous sand and quartz. The strongest fire will not melt these grains, though it will make them cohere; but they may be melted by a burning lens, or a blow-pipe supplied with dephlogisticated air. Pure platina is the heaviest body in nature, its specific gravity exceeding twenty-two. It is very malleable, though considerably harder than gold or silver, and has the property of welding in common with iron. This metal is not affected by exposure to the air, or by any simple acid, though concentrated and hot; but it is dissolved by dephlogisticated marine acid, and by aqua regia, in which a little nitrous air is procured. The solution is brown, and when diluted yellow. This liquor is very corrosive, and tinges animal substances of a blackish brown colour. Platina is precipitated from a solution in aqua regia by sal-ammoniac, as gold is by martial vitriol. Iron is precipitated from this solution by the Prussian alkali. Also most of the metals precipitate platina, but not in its metallic state. Arsenic facilitates the solution of platina; and by melting it with equal parts of arsenic and vegetable alkali, and then reducing the mass to a powder, it may be made to take any form; and a strong heat will dissipate the arsenic and the alkali, leaving the platina in the shape required, not fusible by any heat in a common furnace. Platina does not readily combine with gold or silver, and it resists the action of mercury as much as iron; but it mixes well with lead, making it less ductile, and even brittle, according to the proportion of the platina. With copper it forms a compound which takes a beautiful polish, not liable to tarnish, and is therefore used with advantage for mirrors of reflecting telescopes. It unites easily with tin, and also with bismuth, antimony, and zinc. LECTURE XXIII. _Of Mercury._