396 RECORD OP SCIENCE FOR 1886. 



oxide by nitric acid aud into a soluble sulphate by concentrated sul- 

 phuric acid. Its atomic weight is 72.32, and it proves to be Meudele- 

 jetfs el-asilicium. It forms two oxides, GeO and Ge02, two corresi)ond- 

 ino- sulphides, and two chlorides, both of which nre thin colorless fuming 

 liquids. (J. Prakt. Chem., 1SS6, passim.) 



Atomic WeigJit of Antimony. — Alfred Poi)per, of the University of 

 Graz, has niade very careful determinations of the atomic weight of 

 antimony, and obtains a mean of 120.G9, which is an entire unit more 

 than J. r. Cooke's result, 119.130. He can find no sourceof error either 

 in Cooke's determinations or in his own, and suggests that the possible 

 presence of germanium may solve the question. (Ann. Chem.,ccxxxiii.) 



On some Probable New Elements., by Alexander Priugle. — The author 

 states that he obtained the material on which he worked from his own 

 lauded property, situated upon the river Tweed, county of Selkirk, 

 Scotland. He examined some gravel aud other material forming the 

 debris of an ancient glacier, which he "iuiagines" to be the ancieut 

 soil of the very ancient mountains in that geologic formation. He de- 

 scribes more or less fully no less than six probable new elements; 

 polt/mnestum is a metal of rather dark color, with an equivalent of 

 about 74, aud forming four oxides of various colors; erebodium is as 

 black as charcoal and has an equivalent of 95.4; gadenium has an equiv- 

 alent of 43, G and forms two oxides ; hesperisium is a non-metallic ele- 

 ment having an equivalent of 45.2, and a red color and a metallic luster 

 like a sunset sky. Two other nameless elements are briefly claimed by 

 he author. (Chem. ]!!^ews, liv, J 07.) 

 t 



Dysprosium, a neic Element, by Lecoq de Boisbaudran. — In October, 

 1878, Delafontaine announced a new earth, which he called philipi)ium, 

 but early in 1880 he recognized that it was identical with holmiuro, 

 previously studied by Soret and by Cleve. Later in the same year, 

 however, Delafontaine abandoned this view, because he determined that 

 philippium had no absorption spectra. Lecoq de Boisbaudran has suc- 

 ceeded by several hundred fractional treatmeuts in separating holmium 

 into two bodies, for the first of which he proposes to preserve the name 

 holmium, and the second he names dysprosium (ooffr-^v^^fftro? = hard to 

 get at). The new holmium has for characteristic absorption bands G40.4 

 and 53G.3, and the bands of dysprosium are 753 and 451.5. The-author 

 has encountered extraordinary difficulties in the separation of holmium, 

 erbium, terbium, and dysprosium, and the scarcity of material greatly 

 retards the laborious investigation. (Comptes Eendus, cit, 1003 and 

 1005.) 



New Elements in OadoUnite and Samarskite defected Spectroscopically, 

 by William Crookes. — Finding that Lecoq de Boisbaudran is pursuing 

 the spectroscopic study of the rare earths in the same track as himself, 



