514 



SCIENTIFIC KECORD FOR 1882. 



Lkt of New ricmcnifs announced since 1877. 



The six years ending iu 1882 Lave been unnsually prolific in new 

 elements, or at least in announcements of the same, for it must be con- 

 ceded that most of them will fail to stand the test of more thorough 

 investigation. These alleged discoveries are widely' scattered in pe- 

 riodical literature, and the following list may prove useful for reference: 



List of elpmentary nuhntunces announced from 1877 to 1862. 



New Elementary Svhsiances. — At the meeting of the Eusslan Chemical 

 Society held October 20, 1881 (and reported iu the Bulletin de la SocietS 

 Chimiqne de Pai-is, for August, 1882), Mendelejeflf, the distinguished au- 

 thor of the periodic law, remarked that only two of the recently an- 

 nounced elements — scandium and ytterbium — had been satisfactorily 

 confirmed. These have been obtained in a pure state by Nilson, and 

 neither of them has absorption spectra. All the other metals seem to 

 be mixtures, as was the case with the old erbium of Bunseu and Bahr, 

 and which proves to contain Sc, Yb, Er, Tr, and other elements. Scan- 

 dium corresponds in its atomic weight and properties to ehihor, a hypo- 

 thetical substance, the existence of which had been foreseen by the 

 speaker. 



Mendelejeff expressed himself convinced that his periodic law will find 

 further confirmation iu the results to be yet obtained in stutlying the 

 elements of cerite and of gadolinite. {Bull. Soc. Chim., xxxviii, p. 140.) 



A new element accomimnying didymmm is announced by the Swedish 

 chemist, Prof. P. T. Cleve. He has long studied the rare earths existing 

 in cerite, gadolinite, and similar minerals, and the behavior of the oxide 

 of didymium obtained from the latter has led him to suspect the presence 

 of a new element. In the beginning of the year 1882 he submitted to 

 fractional precipitations about 200 grams of didymium oxide, and sepa- 

 rated from the yttria earths with potassium sulphate by repeated pre- 

 cipitations; the atomic weight of the first fraction was 14G, that of the 



