463 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



of Berlin published a series of researches on the ores from these 

 diiFerent localities, from which, so far as I can understand the matter, 

 he drew the following conclusions : first, that the metal in the 

 Swedish tantalite is a distinct metal, with its peculiar oxygen acid and 

 other combinations, and for this metal the name of tantalum may be 

 with great propriety reserved, being the metal discovered by Eke- 

 berg, and by him called tantalum ; secondly, that in the Bodenmais 

 and American minerals two metals are contained, which M. Rose 

 proposed to distinguish by the names of Niobium and Pelopium, the 

 latter being supposed to be nearly allied to tantalum, but the former 

 quite distinct in its characters*. 



This view of Rose has more or less prevailed for the last eight 

 years ; although I confess it had always occurred to me, and occa- 

 sionallj'^ I spoke out the view, that Mr. Hatchett's memory had been 

 rather hardly dealt with, since M. Rose had left him entirely out of 

 view, although truly the first discoverer of the first known of these 

 metals and minerals. 



When cerium was ascertained not to be a pure metal, but to con- 

 tain lanthanium and didymium mixed with it, no one thought of 

 dropping entirely the name of cerium. It still belongs to an ac- 

 knowledged metal, and the rights of its discoverers are unimpaired. 



Precisely the same observation applies in regard to yttria and the 

 new oxides of erbium and terbium. 



Other examples of the same kind might be quoted. 



Now, on the authority of such precedents, when it was thought 

 to be ascertained that the American columbite and the analogous 

 Bodenmais mineral did not contain one new metal only, but at least 

 two, justice seems to have required that the name of columbium 

 should have been reserved for the more abundant of these two, just 

 as the names of cerium and of yttrium have been preserved. 



But how much more strongly does such a view hold good now, when 

 it has been announced by M. Rose that the American and Boden- 

 mais mineral contain only one metal, and for thiy metal he actually 

 proposes the name of niobium*? Does it not follow very clearly 

 that this metal ought to have the name oi columbium ? M. Rose has 

 now come to the same conclusion at which Mr. Hatchett arrived 

 fifty years ago, when he announced that one new metal, to which he 

 gave the name of columbium, existed in the American mineral colum- 

 bite. If the countrymen of the latter most distinguished analytical 

 chemist have any sense of justice or regard for the memory of an 

 eminent man — one with whom I am proud to say I had a slight 

 acquaintance, and from whom I received some kindness — they will 

 now unite for the future in sui)port of his just right not to be for- 

 gotten and entirely laid aside in this matter. There cannot be a 

 better opportunity than the present for taking this step. 



I am very far from wishing to overlook the important researches 

 of M. Rose on this, as on so very many other interesting topics, and 

 we shall always feel grateful for his further investigations regarding 



* See Chemical Gazette, vol. iv. p. 349. 

 t See Chemical Gazette, vol. xii. j). 149. 



