ELISHA MITCHELL SCIKXTIFIC SOCIETY. 85 



all these comparisons for himself and will iind that 

 chemistr}^ taug-ht by the table is shorter fso much repe- 

 tition being- savedj and is easier for the pupil and its 

 symmetr}^ and beaut}' is much more easih^ broug^ht out. 

 There is no special claim for orig-inality made here. 

 The g-erms of such a table or arrang-ement can be found 

 in several text-books but I do not know of any in which 

 the idea is fully developed or such a table as this is 

 g-iven."^ I offer the whole as a sug-g-estion. Perhaps 

 some may find it useful who have met the same diificul- 

 ties which I have encountered. Others may have over- 

 come these difficulties in a still better way than this. 

 and yet others may see no difficult}' at all in the pres- 

 ent table. I think, at least, all will ag-ree with m.e 

 that there are difficulties and very g-enuine ones also 

 in the use of Mendelejeff's or Meyer's tables as g-ivcn 

 by the respective authors. 



IMPROVEMENT IN THE METHOD OF PRE- 

 PARING PURE ZIRCONIUM CHLORIDES. 



CHAS. BASKERVILLE. 



The preparation of pure zirconium chlorides from 

 zircon is a rather long- and tedious process. Linne- 

 man's method, [Sit^. Ber. Kais. Akad, d. Wisseu- 

 Schaft. Vol. II, 1885, translated in Chemical News 

 LII, 233 and 240. on "Treatment and Qualitative Com^- 

 position of Zircon."] which is very long-, was much 

 shortened and simplified by Venable \fourn. Anal, and 



* The arrang-ements of Bayley, Hinrichs, and Wendt are some 

 what similar but the ideas which I would make prominent, are ob- 

 scured by other considerations and speculations. 



