72 New Metals from Gadolinite and Samarskite. {Caen News, 
————— e- ——— ill ini 
formed by Ca being more feeble than hae formed by Na, } REMARKS ON THE NEW METALS FROM 
and, at the same time, TiO, being a less energetic base . 
than Al,03, Eb,O3 will be weaker than MgO. Eb,0O; GADOLINITE AND SAMARSKITE 
will therefore occupy, in many respeds, the place between By M. M. DELAFONTAINE, 
Al;03 and MgO: numbers of its reactions will be ex. 
plained by this circumstance. 
Duiboron, or yttrium, gives an oxide, in every respe& 
more energetic, as Sr gives a more marked base than Ca: 
however, even as there exists a great concordance between 
Ca and Sr, Ti and Zr, so shall we find many analogies 
between ekaboron and duiboron (yttrium ?).” If, then 
yttrium is veritably duiboron, and ought to be accom 
panied by ekaboron, the separation of ekaboron from 
yttrium will be very difficult; in fad, it will only be possible 
by means of excessively delicate differences; for example, in 
the solubility of the salts, or in the energy of the basic 
oxides, &c. 
Oxide of ekaboron will naturally be insoluble in alka- 
lies, but we are uncertain as to whether it will drive off 
the ammonia from chlorhydrate of ammonia. The car. 
bonate of ekaboron will be insoluble jn water, and it will 
be precipitated as a basic salt, if we can judge from what 
we know of the salts of MgO and Al;O3. Its salts will be 
colourless, and will give gelatinous precipitates with KHO, 
K,CO3, HNa;PO,, &c. Sulphate of potassium will give 
a double salt with Eb,(S0,)s, a sort of alum, which will 
probably not be isomorphous with alum proper. A few 
salts only of ekaboron will crystallise well, and they will 
belong to the double salts, The degree of volatility of 
£bCl; will depend on the molecular formula of this com- 
pound ; EbCl; will be volatile, but Eb,;Clg and the higher 
molecules will not volatilise. Chloride of ekaboron will, 
in all probability, be more difficultly volatilised than chlo. 
tide of aluminium, because TiCl, boils at a higher tem. 
perature than SiCl, ; because also CaCl, is more difficultly 
volatilised than MgCl,. But we may be permitted to 
presume that the salts of ekaboron will not be sufficiently 
volatile to be discovered by means of spedtrum analysis, 
The chloride of ekaboron will naturally be a solid body : 
its anhydride will be decomposed by water more easily 
than MgCl, with the evolution of HCI, 
As the volume of CaCl,=49, and the volume of 
TiCly=109, the volume of EbCl, will be about 78, and its 
density will be 2. 
Oxide of ekaboron will be an infusible powder, which 
will, after calcination, dissolve in acids, although with 
difficulty ; it will easily give to water its alkaline reactions, 
but it will not completely saturate acid solutions of litmus 
50 as to make the colour disappear. The density of the 
oxide will be about 35; the volume about 30, because the 
volume of K,0=35, of Cuz0,=36, of Ti20;=40, of 
Cr06=72.* 
Ekaboron, the simple body, will be a light, non-volatile, 
difficultly fusible metal. Tt will only decompose water 
under the influence of heat, and even then incompletely : 
it will dissolve in acids, with the evolution of hydrogen, 
Its density will be about 3-0 (apparently higher), because 
its volume is about 15; for the volumes of metals in the 
even series diminish constantly from the first group, 
Thus the volume of K=30, of Ca=25, of Ti and V= 
about 9, and of Cr, Mn, and Fe = about 7, 
(To be continued.) 
Since M. Marignac and I published our memoirs on 
Terbia, in March, 1878, the real or supposed discovery of 
ten other rare earths has been announced by different 
chemists,—namely, mosandria, philippia, ytterbia, deci. 
via, scandia, holmia, thulia, samaria, and two others not 
yet named. As may be imagined, such a multiplication 
of bodies difficult to isolate and characterise has provoked 
scepticism, and it has been suggested that some of them 
may be duplicates. Ifthe Academy will permit me I will 
communicate my views on this subject as the result of my 
own researches.” 
In my researches on gadolinite and samarskite I have 
always attached great importance to the atomic weights. 
When the equivalent of a base is found to be higher than 
that of the other members of the same group (decipia and 
ytterbia, for instance) I have not had the least doubt of 
he specific existence of this base. But if this equivalent, 
on the contrary, should be intermediate between two 
others (philippia as compared with yttria and terbia), 1 
naturally have multiplied experiments to make certain 
hat I am not working with a mixture of known bodies. 
[n this case the physical chara@eristics have sometimes 
deen of great help. For these reasons, therefore, ytterbia, 
decipia, and philippia appear to me definitely acquired for 
science, 
Scandium is unknown to me; I can say nothing 
about it. . 
Nothing has taken place to make me change my opinion 
upon mosandrium since I proposed to erase jt from the 
list of elements, 
Samarium. — M, Lecoq published in February and 
August, 1879, two notes, one on a new earth cbtained 
from samarskite and the other on samarium. The pro- 
perties Which he attributes to his unnamed earth do not 
appear to me to differ essentially from those of decipia, or 
rather to a mixture of decipia and terbia : samarium is 
only charaderised by absorption rays which appear to 
embrace a portion of those of decipium. I do not know 
any facts which would lead me to imagine that decipium 
ie not homogeneous ; its absorption rays increase and di- 
minish together in all the treatments to which I have sub. 
mitted it. The discovery of samarium therefore demands 
verification by further experiments, 
MM. Marignac and Soret have shown that Bunsen’s 
erbia is a mixture of several bodies, With the assistance 
of M. Thalén, M. Cléve has repeated their experiments 
with the same results. But the savant of Upsala has gone 
‘urther than those of Geneva ; he does not hesitate to 
give names to the supposed new metals which he believes 
to be the cause of certain spectroscopic differences. Ac. 
cording to him the ultra.red ray discovered by M. Soret 
characterises thulium ; the red and green rays (A =640 and 
536) belong to holmium,t whose oxide is yellow and the 
nitrate less easily decomposed by heat than that of 
erbium ; beyond this he has neither obtained the first nor 
the second in a state of even approximate purity. 
Bamarskite contains very little of the old erbia of 
Bunsen: the absorption spectrum of this latter is very 
ieeble with the solutions obtained from it, and in particular 
the green and blue bands (v=523 and 488) of erbia (in 4 
restricted sense) are feeble ; on the contrary, the indigo 
band (\=462) shows much better. After having separated 
the didymia, decipia, and almost all cf the terbia, I sub- 
mitted the formiate of the earths to fractional crystalligga 
tion; the first produ@s gave from 49 to 47 per cent of 
* Not having been for s i i iti i 
Rendus I only Row some of tr eho these new goal po bles 
odin ty Cypeons News of London. If, therefore, there 
f sufficient information. "My part it must be attributed to a Tae 
tM. Soret likewise adds the indigo band. A=ac, 
Variations of the Ele&romotive Force of the 
Batteries of Grove, Bunsen, and Daniell, with the 
Concentration of the Liquids.—C. Fromme.,—Grove’s 
battery is most efficacious when the nitric acid contains 40 
percent of water. Inthe Bunsen battery the strength of the 
current diminishes with the concentration of the acid, In 
Daniell’s battery the eleGromotive force increases with 
the concentration of the solution of sulphate of copper, 
but with a less rapidity.—Les Mondes. 
* Oxide of duiboron (yttria?) should, from an analogical point of 
view, have for its density the number 4'8 (see above.) 3