96" Professor Berzelius on Thorina. 



passing over, condense on the sides of the glass receiver, into 

 which the porcelain tube opens. It forms there an uncrys- 

 taliine mass, dissolving only partially in water, and leaving on 

 the glass a transparent thorina, which cannot be washed off, 

 and which, after the glass becomes dry, adheres so strongly, 

 that it might be mistaken for a consequence of the action of 

 acid upon the glass. It is dissolved off by sulphuric, but 

 neither by muriatic nor nitric acids. The cause of this phe- 

 nomenon may be that the pulverulent chloride of thorium given 

 off is changed at the moment of contact with the moist air 

 into a subsalt, (in what way I do not understand ;) so that the 

 earth, separated by the action of water, will be in the same 

 state of insolubility as that which is obtained by burning. 



With water the neutral chloride of thorium developes much 

 heat, and is entirely dissolved when the compact, half melted 

 portion is selected. 



The hydrate of thorina dissolves with ease in muriatic acid. 

 Evaporated to a certain degree of concentration, particularly 

 if it contain an excess of acid, which renders the salt less 

 soluble, it congeals on cooling, into a straw-Hke crystalline 

 mass. If the evaporation be continued to dryness by a gentle 

 heat, a deliquescent saline mass is obtained, which, even in 

 dry air, neither crystallizes nor dries. Heated more strongly, 

 it is decomposed, the muriatic acid is driven off, and thorina 

 remains behind. The hydrous chloride of thorium dissolves 

 in strong muriatic acid, almost as easily as in water; the 

 chloride of zirconium, on the contrary, is almost insoluble 

 in muriatic acid. It dissolves also, with ease, in alcohol. 



The chloride of thorium combines with the chloride of 

 potassium, forming a double salt, so soluble in water, as to be 

 almost deliquescent. It may be dried and heated to redness 

 in a stream of muriatic acid gas, during which process some 

 chloride of thorium is sublimed, a little is decomposed by the 

 still adhering water, but the greater part remains unchanged. 

 1 made use of this method, among others, for the reduction of 

 thorium with potassium*. The double salt may be obtained 



* The attempt to obtain by the same process, an anhydrous chloride of kalium, 

 and aluminum for reduction, always failed, only a very small part of the chloride^ 

 of aluminum remaining imdecomposed. 



