NOTE ON A NEW ELEMENT ALLIED TO MOLYBDENUM. 9 



to the value 16.7. Of these two results, the lower value, 16.7, 

 which was obtained Irom the reduction of the oxide, must be 

 regarded as more exact, there being an unavoidable slight loss 

 by volatilisation of the oxide produced, wdien the metal is heated 

 in the air, however carefully the heating be conducted. The 

 reduction of the oxide can, on the contrary, be carried on with 

 i^erfect safety, a lower oxide which is non-volatile at full red heat 

 being, apparently, formed during the first stage of the reduction, 

 so that, if the heating is regulated at the beginniog, there is no 

 danger of any loss being incurred. 



The atomic weight of the element becomes 100, if calculated 

 from the equivalent weight on the supposition that it is liexa- 

 valent, like molybdenum. But the number 100 is that already 

 given to nipponium as its atomic weight (This Volume, Art. 

 15, p. 19), and nipponium differs from the element now under 

 consideration in its oxide not being reducible by hydrogen, and 

 in other respects. It is possible that nipponium, instead of 

 being divalent, as was supposed, may prove to be a trivalent 

 element, with an atomic weight of 150, but discussion on this 

 point, as well as on the atomic weight of the new element, will 

 be reserved, until the specific heat determinations of the two 

 elements, now being undertaken by Prof. Ikeda of the Science 

 College, and my analyses of their different compounds shall have 

 been completed. 



It may be here stated, by w\ay of parenthesis, that a new 

 rich source of nipponium has been discovered. On carefully 

 examining samples of thorianite, there have been found, here and 

 there, small, translucent, prismatic crystals, varying in colour 

 from yellow to red. They are very hard and can scratch glass 

 quite easily. The specific gravity of the mineral is 4.5, being 



