CHEMISTRY. 261 



founded on the well-known fact that phosphorus -salt will 

 decompose silicates and dissolve their metallic oxides, but 

 will neither dissolve the silica nor attack the quartz. The 

 finely pulverized mineral or rock is weighed, placed in a 

 platinum crucible, sufficient phosphorus- salt to decompose 

 the silicates is added, and the whole is carefully heated, first 

 in an air-bath and then in the blast, till the whole is in quiet 

 fusion. On detaching the fused mass and boiling it in hydro- 

 chloric acid, the silica and quartz are left undissolved ; and 

 on boiling: the residue with soda solution, the silica from the 

 silicates is taken up and the quartz is left. The results are 



said to be accurate. 



METALLIC. 



Brugelmann, of Diisseldorf, has succeeded in obtaining ba- 

 ryta, strontia, and lime in crystals, by heating their nitrates 

 to complete decomposition. The three oxides were obtained 

 in microscopic crystals which were cubes. In the case of 

 baryta and strontia the crystals were exceedingly minute, 

 while in the case of lime their form could be seen by the eye. 



Fremv and Feil have communicated to the French Acad- 

 emy a paper on the artificial production of corundum, ruby, 

 and different crystallized silicates. In a crucible of refrac- 

 tory clay a mixture of equal weights of alumina and minium 

 is placed and calcined for some hours at a bright-red heat. 

 After cooling, two layers are found ; the one vitreous, formed 

 chiefly of lead silicate, the other crystalline, often presenting 

 geodes full of beautiful crystals of alumina. To obtain the 

 red color of ruby, about two or three per cent, of potassium 

 dichromate is added to the mixture. The lead silicate on 

 the ruby crystals is removed by fused lead oxide or hydro- 

 gen fluoride. An aluminum silicate, apparently dysthene, 

 was produced by heating for some time a mixture of equal 

 weights silica and aluminum fluoride, silicon fluoride being- 

 evolved. 



Nilson and Petersson have prepared beryllium with great 

 care, and have studied its properties, especially its specific 

 heat, in order to fix definitely its atomic weight. The metal 

 w r as obtained by heating the chloride with sodium to bright 

 redness in an iron cylinder, as a net-work of brilliant micro- 

 scopic crystals of the color and lustre of steel. It is perma- 

 nent in the air, does not decompose water when boiled with 



