CHEMISTRY — BA.SKERVIIvI,E. 1 39 



two, as 147° C. (average), the different figures ranging from 142° to 

 152" C. 



According to two anah^ses made with the acetyl-acetonates of caro- 

 liniura and berzelium, the two substances seem to be different, in fact. 

 The analj^ses yielded the following figures, respectively : 



Cn. — 0.8832 gram acetyl-acetonate gave 0.3770 gram oxide. 



CnOj. — 42.69 per cent eq. wt. 59,7725, at. wt.''' 239.09. 



Bz. — 0.2058 gram acetyl-acetonate gave 0.0852 gram oxide. 



BzOj. — 41.4 per cent eq. wt. 56.29, at. wt."' 225.16. 



S. Jordan, in preparing a series of the organic salts of carolinium, 

 examined the comparative behavior of the acetyl-acetonates of orig- 

 inal thorium, carolinium, and berzelium. It was learned that caro- 

 linium acetyl-acetonate cr3^stallizes readily from absolute alcohol and 

 does not alcoholize, whereas the berzelium salt forms a gummy mass 

 and crystallizes only with the utmost difficulty. The acetyl-acetonate 

 of the original thorium appears a mixture of the other tw^o. The 

 gummy mass was allowed to settle, separated, the mother liquor 

 evaporated ; the impure crystals were redissolved in absolute alcohol, 

 the process being repeated. The crystals after the sixth treatment 

 melted at 172° C. An atomic weight determination with the acetyl- 

 acetonate gave the value 240.3, assuming carolinium tetravalent. 

 This was confirmed by E. E. Randolph with still another preparation. 



Although these facts and figures seem to prove beyond question 

 the complexity of thorium, we are not yet ready to assert it as final. 

 The absorption of gases by the oxides, which was first observed by 

 Biltz, might have caused some discrepancies. 



PREPARATION OF METAI.LIC THORIUM. 

 Charles Baskerville with Fritz Zerban and E. E. Randolph. 



To settle definitely the elementary nature of the constituents sep- 

 arated from thorium, it became necessary to secure the metals them- 

 selves, that such physical constants as specific heat, specific gravity, 

 etc. , might be determined. On account of their similarity and value, 

 preliminary investigations of methods were carried out with the 

 ordinary thorium compounds. 



The preparation of the metal, thorium, proved to be a very difficult 

 problem, the solution of which required months of experimentation, 

 as the literature provided much misinformation as to the purity of 

 the compounds obtained by the methods described. 



Apparently the purest metallic thorium which has been obtained 

 up to this time was that made b}^ Nilson. The previous experiments 

 of Berzelius and Chydenius had yielded an impure metal. Nilson 



