CHEMISTRY. 515 



last 142. The examination of the ignition spectrnm of the last frac- 

 tion showed, besides strong rays of didymium and lanthanum, new rays, 

 among which is a very strong one having the wave-length of 4333.5. This 

 ray belongs neither to didymium, lanthanum, yttrium, erbium, terbium, 

 nor to Marignac's Ya, and is regarded by Cleve as peculiar to a new 

 element which he designates provisionally by i>i/9. [Comptes Bendus; 

 abstract in Chem. N'ews, xlv, p. 273.) 



Soon after the publication of the above statement by Professor Oleve, 

 B. Brauner printed a not€ in the Chemical Neics (46, 16), in which he 

 6how8 that he anticipated the Swedish chemist in discovering a new 

 element accomi^anying didymium in cerite. His experiments were made 

 in Professor Eoscoe's laboratory, and some of his results were published 

 intha Anzeigerderlcais. Academie der Wissenschaften (October 6, 1881). 

 Brauner thinks that oxide of didymium, as usually known to chemists, 

 consists of a mixture of at least three elements, true didymium having 

 an atomic weight =145.4, Cleve's element, more basic than didymium, 

 and a third with a higher atomic weight is less basic than didymium. 

 This last may possibly be samarium. 



Professor Cleve in a still later communication states that continued 

 researches by himself and Thalen have convinced him that the ray 

 4333.5 belongs to the spectrum of lanthanum, and that the existence of 

 a new element is very improbable. {Chem. Neics, xlvi, p. 43.) 



The earths contained in samarsMte have been studied by Professor 

 H. E. Eoscoe, with the object of ascertaining the existence or non-ex- 

 istence of Delafontaine's philippium. Boscoe worked up 1,500 grams of 

 samarskite and obtained about 60 grams of oxides containing terbium, 

 erbium, yttrium, and philippium {!). The oxides were converted into 

 formiates, and these salts carefully examined to obtain pure philippium 

 salt, but the author failed to get an oxide having a constant atomic 

 weight equal to 122 (claimed by Delafontaine). The numbers varied 

 between the atomic weights of terbia and y ttria. Eoscoe then tried the 

 following conclusive experiment : 3 grams of terbia, having an atomic 

 weight of 147.9, and 3 grams of crude yttria, with an atomic weight of 

 101.4, were respectively converted into formiates. Of each of these two 

 formiates, two-thirds were brought into solution separately while the 

 other third of the terbium formiate was mixed with the remaining third 

 of yttrium formiate, and the mixture dissolved. Each of the three so- 

 lutions was then mixed with an equal bulk of alcohol and allowed to 

 stand for the same length of time. The two solutions, containing re- 

 spectively terbia and yttria, gave crystals presenting the ordinary ap- 

 pearance of formiates of the metals in question, but the third solution 

 containing the mixed formiates deposited rhombic prisms exactly like 

 the crystals which Delafontaine claims are peculiar to the formiate of 

 philippium. The non-existence of i^hilippium is thus undoubtedly es- 

 tablished. {Chem. News, xlv, p. 184.) 



