Geological Collections. ^I^ 



Frog Embalmed in Amber Dr Kastner states that he saw, in the pos- 

 session of M. KLrause, at Sumimiuide, in the isle of Rugen, a piece of amber 

 containing a frog ! — Ibid. .i; ^« 



Vanadium, a new Metal. — The following extract of a letter from Berzeliits 

 to M. Dulong, is given in the Annales de Chimie, vol. xlv. p. 332: — 



Professor Sefstrbm, director of the School of Mines at Fahlun, in exa- 

 mining a species of iron remarkable for its extreme flexibility, found in 

 it a substance, the properties of which differed from those of all known 

 substances, but in quantity so small, as to require much labour and expense 

 to procure enough of it for examination. This iron came from the mine of 

 Taberg, in Snioland ; and M. Sefstrom having found that the ore contained 

 the new substance in larger quantity than the metal extracted from it, was 

 induced to examine the slag, which he found much richer, and from which 

 he procured as much as enabled him to study its properties. 



We have not yet definitely fixed the name of this substance ; we have 

 called it for the present Vanadium, from Vanadis, an ancient Scandinavian 

 deity. 



Vanadium forms with oxygen an oxide and an acid. 

 The acid is red, pulverulent, and fusible, and assumes the crystalline foi'ra 

 on cooling. It is slightly soluble in water, reddens litmus, gives yellow 

 neutral salts, and orange bi-salts. Its combinations with the acids, or the bases, 

 in solution in water, possess the singular property of losing often all at 

 once their colour, which they reassume as they become solid ; and if they 

 are again dissolved, they preserve their colour. This phenomenon appears 

 to have some analogy with the two distinct states of the phosphoric acid and 

 the phosphates. 



Hydrogen gas reduces the vanadic acid to a red white ; there remains a 

 coherent mass, emitting a slightly metallic sound, and conducting electricity 

 well. 



Vanadium thus obtained does not combine with sulphur, even when 

 heated to redness in an atmosphere formed by the vapour of this substance. 

 The oxide of vanadium is brown, almost black ; it dissolves readily in 

 acids. The salts are of a very deep brown colour, but by the addition of a 

 little nitric acid, an efiervescence takes place, and the colour becomes a very 

 fine blue. 



Sulphuretted hydrogen, and even nitrous acid, reduce the vanadic acid, in 

 combination with another acid, to that blue matter which seems to be a 

 compound of vanadic acid wdth the oxide of vanadium, analogous to those 

 formed by tungsten, molybdenum, iridium, and osmium. The acid and 

 oxide give also combinations of a green, yellow, and red colour, all soluble 

 in water, without the assistance of another acid. 



The oxide of vanadium, prepared in the moist way, is soluble in water 

 and the alkalis, — the presence of a salt in the water renders its solution 

 impossible ; a property from which is derived a method of precipitating it. . 

 The vanadates dissolved in water are decomposed by sulphuretted hydro- 

 gen, which transforms them into sulpho-salts, of a beautiful red colour. 



The chloride of vanadium is a colourless, very volatile liquid, giving off in 

 the air a thick red vapour. 



The fluoride is sometimes red, sometimes colourless, but always fixed. 

 Before the blowpipe, vanadium gives, like chromium, a beautiful green 

 bead. 



The memoir of M. Sefstrbm will present a more complete history of 

 this substance. -ml 



Vanadium discovered in Brazil. — The following additional notice we 

 extract from Jameson's Journal: — Humboldt presented to the Institute 

 specimens of vanadium, the new metal recently discovered ix\ the iron of 



