ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 17 
rides. Healso says that in no case was it found possible 
to prepare the chloride free from iron and silica. The 
necessity for the presence of these in the materials used 
or in the resuiting compound is not very apparent. We 
have as yet had no opportunity of repeating his experi- 
ments. 
This tetrachloride has also been prepared by passing 
dry chlorine over zirconium or over zirconia and charcoal. 
Troost and Hautefeuille [Compt. rend, LX XV., 1889. ] 
have prepared it by the «ction of silicon chloride upon 
zirconia. Smith and Harris [Am. Chem. Soc. 1895. 654] 
succeeded in preparing this same chloride by heating zir- 
conta with phosphorus pentachloride. 
The chlorides 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 or from water. 
Berzelius attempted to remove the excess of hydrochlo- 
ric acid by heating the salt to 60°C. but was not able to 
obtain a definite compound. , 
Two analyses gave 
Bene oe oS 1 0,332 0.485 
Ean aries Shot Ad a 2 ake a4 «2 0.661 1.096 
The silver chloride should be about two and one-third 
times as much as the oxide. 
Paykull dried the salt between hlter paper and found 
the composition of the crystals to be ZrOCl,.8H,O. Ac- 
cording to Melliss (Zeitschr. f. Chem. [2], VI. 196) this salt 
‘crystallizes with 43H,O instead of SH,O. The amorphous 
form is precipitated by pouring the aqueous solution into 
strong hydrochloric acid. This ts insoluble in boiling 
concentrated acid but easily soluble in water. Paykull 
(Ber. VI. 1467) assigns to this the formula 2ZrOC1,.13H,O. 
Endemann has described basic or oxychlorides Zr,O, 
Cl,, ZrOC1OH, and Zr,O,C1,(OH),; Troost and Hautefeu- 
iile have described others, Zr,O,Cl, and Zr,OCI,. In fact 
water is so easily taken up and hydrochloric acid lost 
3 
