80 JOURNAL OF THE 



necessity for the presence of these in the materials 

 used or in the resulting- compound is not very apparent. 

 I have as yet had no opportunity of repeating his experi- 

 ments. 



The chh)rides most commonly worked with have been 

 those formed by the solution of the hydroxide in hydro- 

 chloric acid, followed by precipitation or crystallization 

 from concentrated hydrochloric acid. 



Berzelius attempted to remove the excess of hydro- 

 chloric acid b}^ heating- the salt to 6iP C. but was not 

 able to obtain a definite compound. Two analyses 

 gave: 



ZrO. 0.332 0.485 



AgCl 0.661 1.076 



The silver chloride should be about two and one- 

 third times as much as the oxide. 



Paykull dried the salt between filter paper and found 

 the composition of the cr3^stals to be ZrOCL. 8H2O, 

 the amorphous form precipitated by hydrochloric acid 

 being 2ZrOCl,. I3H3O. 



Endemann has described basic or oxychlorides 

 ZraOCU; ZrOClOH, and Zr808Cl7(OH)9; Troost and 

 Hautefeuille have described others, Zr203Cl2 and Zr2- 

 OClo- In fact water is so easily taken up and hydro- 

 chloric acid lost that a large number of such indefinite 

 compounds might be prepared by slightly varying the 

 conditions. 



Nylander'^' made a series of attempts at dehydrating- 

 the chloride. He prepared the chloride by dissolving- 

 the hydroxide in hydrochloric acid and evaporating- to 

 crystallization. The salt formed white needles, easily 



*Bidrag- till kinnedomen om Zirkonjord. Inaug-. Diss. Lund 1864. 



