Scientific InleUi(jence — Chemistry and the Arts. 199 



lucent, with a brownish-red colour ; lustre vitreous on the most distinct 

 cleavage faces, and inclining to resinous on the fractured surface ; 

 hardness between quartz and felspar; specific gravitij=-2>'Q9. The 

 chemical examination yielded the following constituent parts: — Silica, 

 Titanic acid, Lime, Yttria (from eight to ten per cent.), Oxide of iron, 

 Manganese, Alumina, and Magnesia. Subsequently to Scheerer's 

 investigation of the yttro-titanite, he ascertained that, singularly 

 enough, Axel Erdmann, secretary of mines at Stockholm, had pre- 

 viously obtained the other half of the imbedded mass from the same 

 quany, and that a qualitative analysis had aftbrded him identical 

 results. — (Poggenclorf^s Annalen,\o\. Ixiii. p. 459, a.\\^ Leonhard' s 

 Jahrbuch, 1845, Heft 2, p. 203.) 



CHEMISTRY AND THE ARTS. 



30. Ruthenium, a New Metal. — Professor Claus of Kasan, states, 

 that after two years' uninterrupted labour, he has at last succeeded 

 in obtaining a new metal in a pure state from the platinum re- 

 siduum ; and that ho proposes to give it the name of Ruthenium, be- 

 cause it is contained in small quantity in a white body mentioned by 

 Osann, Avhicli consists chiefly of silica, titanic acid, oxide of iron, 

 and zirconia, and Avhich the latter chemist considei'ed as a peculiar 

 metallic oxide, and termed Oxide of Huthenium. Hitherto Profes- 

 sor Claus has only obtained the metal in the form of a blackish-grey 

 powder, which is considerably lighter than iridium. It belongs to the 

 interesting group of the platinum metals, and its chlorides and double 

 chlorides are very similar to those of iridium. The resemblance of 

 the chloride of potassium and iridium to the corresponding salt of the 

 new metal is so great, that Berzelius, to whom a specimen was sent, 

 at first declared it to be a salt of iridium ; a week afterwards, how- 

 ever, Professor Claus received a letter from him, in which he re- 

 tracted that opinion, and stated, that he regarded it as a salt of an 

 unknown metal. According to the discoverer, Ruthenium possesses 

 such distinct and peculiar characters, that no doubt can be enter- 

 tained of its being a new metal. Professor Osann says, that he had 

 previously detected a metal (Poggendorff^s Annals, vol. xiv., 1828, 

 p. 349) belonging to the platinum group, which he thinks possesses the 

 same properties as the Ruthenium of Claus, and which he had pro- 

 posed to term Poline, from aoX/o;, grey. — (Poggendorff's Annals, 

 vol.lxiv., 192 and 208.)* 



31. Occui-rence of Chloride and Bromide of Silver in Ancient 



* With in tlie last six years, no less than seven new metals have been 

 aimounced, viz., Lantaiiitihi and Didiiuiiiua (which were found asso- 

 ciated with cerium), and TJyti'O'i and Tti-hium (whose oxides occur com- 

 bined witli Yttria), discovered by Mosander ; Niobium and Fdopium 

 fboth in the Tantalitu or Columbite of Bavaria), by Professor Henry 

 Rose ; and now the lliUhcnium, by Professor Claus, — Edit. 



