NOTE ON A NEW ELEMENT ALLIED TO 3I0LYBDENUM. 11 



had a bluish greeu, and the later portions a reddish brown 

 colour. Treatment with nitric acid was continued, until no more 

 colour was imparted to it, but a considerable fraction of the 

 brown residue was still left undissolved. 



The colour of the first portions of the extract was somewhat 

 like that of a cupric salt, but that it was not due to the presence 

 of this element was shown by the fact that the dark brown — almost 

 black — precipitate produced by sodium sulphide, after nitric acid 

 had been evaporated off, was completely dissolved by an excess 

 of the reagent. The sulphide, reprecipitated from the solution 

 on the addition of hydrochloric acid, was moistened with con- 

 centrated nitric acid and ignited, and then fused with potassium 

 nitrate. The brown residue, left on extracting the fused mass 

 with water, was found to consist of an unknown oxide, mixed 

 with ferric oxide, it being this unknown oxide which dissolves 

 in nitric acid with a bluish green colour. The aqueous extract 

 did not contain any molybdenum, but it did contain the same 

 new element as occurs in molybdenite, forming the subject of the 

 present paper, as was shown by the formation of a brown sul- 

 phide, soluble in ammonium carbonate to form a deep brown 

 solution, the precipitation of the salts of barium, lead and silver, 

 and, more especially, of the characteristic mercurous salt, as well 

 as by the volatility and the crystalline nature of the oxide 

 obtained from it. 



The later portions of the nitric acid extract, which had a 

 reddish brown colour, were evaporated to dryness, when a 

 deliquescent, gummy mass of a brown colour was left behind. 

 On ignition and subsequent fusion with potassium nitrate, it was 

 found to be resolved into the same three constituents as were 

 obtained from the first portions of the nitric acid extract, namely 



