Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 419 



by spontaneous evaporation ; the solution becomes gradually turbid 

 by the action of the carbonic acid of the air, and deposits a white 

 powder of acidulous ilmenate of soda. 



When ferrocyanide of potassium, and afterwards hydrochloric acid, 

 are added to a solution of ilmenate of soda, a precipitate of a deeper 

 brown colour than hydrate is produced; tincture of galls acts similarly. 



Hydrate and subsulphate of ilmenium do not dissolve in acids ; 

 acid solutions of ilmenic acid cannot therefore be prepared for the 

 purpose of acting upon zinc ; but if the hydrate or subsulphate re- 

 cently precipitated be moistened with hydrochloric acid, and then 

 exposed to tlie action of zinc, a grayish-blue colour is produced. 



With borax and with a phosphate, ilmenic acid produces glass 

 both in the interior and exterior flame of the blowpipe, which appears 

 to be yellow, but which becomes colourless on cooling. This metal is 

 so named from the Ilmen mountains near Miask, in which the mineral 

 containing it is found. — Journ. de Pharm. et deCh., Octobre 1846. 



[It is very probable that this new metal may prove to be nothing 

 more than pelopium described in the preceding paper. In a commu- 

 nication with which we have been favoured, Prof. Rose states " that 

 he cannot venture to decide in what relation the ilmenic acid stands 

 to pelopic acid, from the few properties which M. Hermann has 

 described. According to him, ilmenic acid acquires a golden-yellow 

 colour on ignition, while pelopic acid, according to my experiments, 

 only becomes yellowish. The most important character of ilmenic 

 acid, by which it differs essentially from tantalic and niobic acid, is 

 said to be that it is precipitated entirely by hydrochloric acid from the 

 solution of its soda salt ; while pelopic acid, according to my experi- 

 ments, when precipitated by hydrochloric acid from a solution of the 

 pelopate of soda, is dissolved in an excess of the acid to an opalescent 

 liquid, in which no precipitate is formed by boiling. According to 

 Hermann, the solution of the ilmenate of soda is rendered turbid by 

 the influence of the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, which I have 

 not observed to be the case with the pelopate of soda. The quantity 

 of carbonic acid which, according to Hermann, is expelled from the 

 carbonate of soda by fusion with ilmenic acid, is entirely different 

 from that which is expelled under similar circumstances by pelopic 

 acid. Tincture of galls produces, according to Hermann, in a solu- 

 tion of the ilmenate of soda to which some hydrochloric acid has been 

 added, a brown precipitate ; that formed under similar circumstances 

 in pelopate of soda, according to my observations, is orange-yellow. 

 The beads produced in the inner and outer flame before the blow- 

 pipe, by ilmenic acid with borax and microcosmic salt, are yellow 

 while hot and become white on cooling, which does not agree with 

 the behaviour of pelopic acid towards the same reagents. Lastly, the 

 specific gravity of ilmenic acid, as stated by M. Hermann, does not 

 agree with thatwhich I havefound for pelopicacid." — Ed. Phil. Mag.] 



ON XANTHIC OXIDE. 

 MM. Einbrodt and linger notice an error committed by MM. 

 Wcehler and Liebig respecting the composition of xanthic oxide. 



2 F 2 



