Oxide of vestium is soluble in nitric, sulphuric, muri atic, and acetic acids. The salts formed are soluble in water. The solutions on evaporation afford crystals, which, when acted on by water, deposit the oxide.
Sulphuretted hydrogen, when added to a solution of a salt ol vcstium, throws down a r eddish-brown precipitate, provided there is not an excess of acid present ; if there be a superabundance of acid, no change takes place on the addition of sulphuretted hydrogen.
The alkalies afford precipitates with the solutions of the salts of vestiun. ; that thrown down by ammonia is soluble in an excess of the alkali. The carbonate of potassa and of soda precipitate a carbonate of vestium. Carbonate of ammonia separates a white powder from the muriate, but scarcely effects any change on the sul phate.
Sub•borate of soda does not afford any precipitate with a diluted solution of a salt of vestium.
The phosphate, oxalate, and prussiate of the alkalies, throw down white precipitates.
Lime-water, and the infusion of nut-galls, also precipitate a white powder. The same occurs when a piece of zinc is immersed in a solution of a salt of vestium.
Such are the properties ascribed to vestium. The existence of this as a distinct metal has, however, been called in question by Dr. Wollaston, and Mr. Farraday, chemical assistant in the Royal Institution of London, to whom a small piece of the metal called vestiuni was sent for examination.
Mr. Farraday dissolved the metal in warm nitric acid. The solution, on the addition of ni!rate of baryta, yield ed a precipitate of sulphate of baryta. Ammonia add ed to the solution, afforded oxide of iron The fluid, after filtration, was of a bluish colour, and afforded, with prussiate potassa, a white precipitate. These ex periments indicate the presence of sulphur, iron, and nickel ; the first of which was acidified by the nitric acid, and yielded the precipitate of sulphate of ba ryta.
By the action of nitric acid on the metal, a blackish substance was left undissolved, which, according to the experiments of Mr. Farraday, contained an arseniate, for when dissolved in an acid, it gave a yellow precipitate with nitrate of silver, and a greenish one with the sulphate of copper.
With the above results, the experiments of Dr. Wol laston agree. These chemists, therefore, assert, that the substance considered by Dr. Vest as a new metal, is merely a combination of sulphur, iron, nickel, and ar senic, and also cobalt, which was indicated in their ex periments.
The principal circumstance that led Dr. Vest to pro nounce the substance which he obtained from the co balt ore of Schladming, a new metal, was its not being precipitated from its solution by sulphuretted hydrogen, when an excess of acid was present, but being thrown down when the solution was neutral. This, however, is the case with nickel.
If a new metal, therefore, do exist in the ore of Schladming, Dr. Vest does not seem to have procured it free from the other bodies contained in the ore, nickel, arsenic, and cobalt.
AIETArnvstes have been called the First Philosophy, or the Science of Sciences, as their object is to explain the principles and causes of all things existing, and to sup ply the defects of inferior sciences, which do not de monstrate, or sufficiently explain, their principles. Nle taphysies, says Lord Monboddo, consider the ru arra f) OrrGG; that is, things, not as the terms of propositions or syllogisms, but by themselves, and as existing in na ture, and not as the subject of any particular science, though they be the principles of all sciences, and of all things existing in the universe.
Some have supposed, that metaphysics have derived their name merely from the circumstance of their being placed after the physics of Aristotle, and have laughed at the fancy of giving a name to a science, from its ac cidental position among the writings of a certain au thor. The supposition is unfounded, and of course the ridicule misplaced. When Aristotle inscribed his books which treat of the principles of things, 'MY Kern TcG PUTI. ZCG, it is evident that he had one of two things in view : he must either have meant that the subjects treated of ought, in the order of study, to come after physical re searches ; or that they were of a higher character, and required higher faculties to comprehend them. In ei ther of these acceptations, the term metaphysics is pe culiarly appropriate ; and were we to admit that it was imposed originally by the Aristotelians through igno rance, and without any authority from their master, we would certainly say, that it is the most fortunate coin cidence of an accidental name with the true nature of the science to be found in the history of scientific no menclature.