

PROPERTIES OF THE EARTH YTTRfA. 251 



and various public libraries in this town, with feveral colleges, 

 fchools, and focieties, which it would anfwer no good purpofe 

 to name without more ample comment ; and among the latter 

 the colleges of Warrington and Hackney, begun with great 

 fpirit, but in a few years abandoned. Or may we not rather The hiftory of 

 hope, that an inveftigation of conftitutionaland hiftorical facts, m * e ^ e ^ 

 refpecting all the public means of inftru&ion in this and the fhew how to 

 neighbouring countries, would affiit us in the means of giving P referve **«* 

 full energy to thefe important eflablilhments ? How are the Correspondents 

 collections and libraries on the Continent regulated as to fupply invited to ftate 

 of materials, prefervation from injury or embezzlement, and continental li- 

 ready accefs by the ftudent ? What may be the ftate of the hraries, the Bri- 

 mufeums and libraries in London, and our univerfities, in thefe & c> -^ or^ ™* 

 and other refpects ? Can the collective power of any body of make progrefc, 

 men be eminently applied to forward literature and the fci- 

 ences; and if fo, why has it generally failed? &c. Thefe 

 and many other intereiting fubjects of inquiry, might be cleared 

 up by Correfpondents of Journals, who may not have leifure 

 for the direct and ample difcuffion of a fubject of fuch magni- 

 tude and extent. 



IV. 



Of the Properties of the Earth Yttria, compared with thofe of 

 Glucine ; of Fojjils, in tuhich the firjt of thefe Earths is con- 



. tained ; and of the Difcovery of a new Subjlance of a metallic 

 Nature (Tantalium). By A. G. Ekeberg*. 



JL HE firft part of this Memoir contains the particulars of the Firft part of the 

 -experiments made by M. Ekeberg, to confirm the difference Memoxr * 

 jexifting between glucine and the earth laft difcovered in ga- 

 dolinite, and named yttria or gadoline ; but as the particular 

 nature of each of thefe earths is well known to chemifts, it 

 would be fuperfluous to fay any thing in this place on the 

 fubject. 



* Kongl. fwcenjk. Vetenjkaps, academiens nya Handlingar j fser 

 tier 1802, Qvartall. Pag. 68. 



This abridged Memoir is from the Journal de Van Mons, but I 

 take it from the Journal de Phyfique, LV. 281. 



As 



