204 HINRICHS— ATOMIC WEIGHT OF VANADIUM. [April 21. 



III. — The Analytical Results. 



The chemical work, beginning with the determination of the 

 weight p and ending with the determination of the weight q (or the 

 inverse) gives directly the atomic ratio r, by a simple division carried 

 to five decimal places. A simple substraction now will give the 

 analytical excess e by using the atomic ratio calculated once for all 

 for the reaction. The results obtained in this way are given in 

 Table III. 



We will here only call attention to the following peculiarly inter- 

 esting circumstances : 



" Analyst B " working under Roscoe makes three determinations 

 under reaction 269, and takes almost the same weight of the oxy- 

 chloride for each one of these determinations ; notwithstanding the 

 fact that he really only repeats one and the same determination three 

 times, his results range over 501 units in the fifth place — an enor- 

 mous range under so favorable conditions. 



In the language of Berzelius, this enormous range is quite a big 

 camel which was swallowed without an effort in the laboratory of 

 Roscoe, who strained laboriously at the tiny gnat of phosphoric acid 

 which a test of high delicacy, that was not yet known in the days 

 when Berzelius did his splendid pioneer work on vanadium and 

 courteously presented to Faraday a sample of the vanadic acid he 

 had received from his disciple who discovered the element vanadium 

 and which acid Berzelius had purified himself as far as the science 

 of his time permitted. These facts I gather from Becker, Smithson. 

 Misc. Collections, 358, Washington, 1880, p. 132, quoting from 

 Licbig's Aimalcii, 93, p. 6, 1868. 



TABLE III. 

 The Analytical Ratios Determined. 

 Reaction 98. — Atomic Ratio, R = 0.17582. 

 Berzelius, 1831. — Meyer-Seubert, " Atomgew.," 1883, p. 28. 



Sums of Weights. r, e. 



Determ. Pentoxide. Oxygen. 



3 4-6995 0.8120 O.T7 278 —304 



I 0.6499 O.I 124 294 — 288 



Diagram. Lines B and B". 



