Analysis by Spectrum-observations. 97 



low glass dish. The solid pellicle which remains is scraped off 

 with a fine knife, and brought into the flame upon the thin 

 platinum wire. For one experiment, T V of a milligramme is in 

 general quite a sufficient quantity. Other compounds besides 

 the silicates, in which small traces of lithium require to be de- 

 tected, are transformed into sulphates by evaporation with sul- 

 phuric acid or otherwise, and then treated in the manner de- 

 scribed. 



In this way we arrive at the unexpected conclusion that lithium 

 is most widely distributed throughout nature, occurring in 

 almost all bodies. Lithium was easily detected in 40 cubic 

 centimetres of the water of the Atlantic Ocean, collected in 41° 

 41' N. latitude, and 39° 14' W. longitude. Ashes of marine 

 plants (kelp), driven by the Gulf-stream on the Scotch coasts, 

 contain evident traces of this metal. All the orthoclase and 

 quartz from the granite of the Odenwald which we have examined 

 contain lithium. A very pure spring water from the granite in 

 Schlierbach, on the west side of the valley of the Neckar, was 

 found to contain lithium, whereas the water from the red sand- 

 stone which supplies the Heidelberg laboratory was shown to 

 contain none of this metal. Mineral waters, in a litre of which 

 lithium could hardly be detected according to the ordinary 

 methods of analysis, gave plainly the line Li a, even if only a 

 drop of the water on a platinum wire was brought into the flame*. 

 All the ashes of plants growing in the Odenwald on a granite 

 soil, as well as Russian and other potashes, contain lithium. Even 

 in the ashes of tobacco, vine leaves, of the wood of the vine, 

 and of grapes f, as well as in the ashes of the crops grown 

 in the Rhine-plain near Waghausel, Deidesheim, and Heidelberg, 

 on a non-granitic soil, was lithium found. The milk of the 

 animals fed upon these crops also contains this widely diffused 

 metal J. 



It is scarcely necessary to say that a mixture of volatile sodium 

 and lithium salts gives the reaction of lithium alongside that 

 of sodium with a precision and distinctness which are hardly 

 perceptibly diminished. The red lines of the former substance 

 are still plainly seen when the bead contains l 1 o6 part of lithium 

 salt, and when to the naked eye the yellow soda-flame appears 

 untinged by the slightest trace of red. In consequence of the 



* When liquids have to be brought into the flame, it is best to bend the 

 end of the platinum wire, of the thickness of a horsehair, to a small ring, 

 and to beat this ring flat. If a drop of liquid be brought into this ring, 

 enough adheres to the wire for one experiment. 



t In the manufactories of tartaric acid, the mother-liquors contain so 

 much lithium salts that considerable quantities can thus be prepared. 



X Dr. Folwarczny has been able to detect lithium in the ash of human 

 blood and muscular tissue by help of the line Li a. 



