404 Berzelius on a new Mineral Body, [JuNE, 
exposed to the pea nor when its oxide was reduced ; and 
that the only way of making it exhale such an odour was to heat 
it in a glass tube, shut by the finger, till the metal converted into 
vapour made a hole in the softened tube. It then burned in the 
hole with a blue flame, and exhaled an odour exactly similar to 
that of the red matter. 
These experiments appeared to me to prove that the red sub- 
stance could not be tellurium; but that tellurium probably 
contains different quantities of it, according as it has been less 
more purified. 
As the precipitate above-mentioned was very meonsiderable, 
I thought that the alkaline liquor might still contam some of it. 
I, therefore, distilled it in a glass retort. What came over first 
was merely water ; but after the mass began to get solid, a great 
quantity of a gas was disengaged, which smelled strongly of 
horseradish ; but which was neither absorbed by water, nor by 
. an alkaline lixivium ; though it communicated its odour to the 
liquid through which it passed. In other respects, the gas had 
the properties of azote. A yellowish liquor was condensed in 
the receiver, which contained sulphurous acid, and was rendered 
muddy by a brown powder. Into the neck of the retort had 
sublimed a saline mass almost black; and at the bottom of it 
remained a small quantity of a yellowish salt which became white 
on cooling. 
The sulphurous liquid in the receiver, being filtered and raised 
to the boiling temperature to drive off the sulphurous acid, 
became muddy again, deposited brown flocks, and lost its odour. 
The black salt, being treated with water, left undissolved a black- 
ish-brown mass, analogous to that which the preceding liquor 
had precipitated. The solution was colourless, and contained a 
mixture of muriate and sulphite of ammonia. 
What remained at the bottom of the retort was in a great 
measure dissolved by water. There remained a white powder, 
which was a mixture of sulphate of lead and subsulphate of tin. 
The dissolved portion contained bisulphate of potash (for potash 
had been added to the liquid to save the caustic ammonia), sul- 
phates of iron, zinc, and ¢gopper. 
The brown matter, insoluble in water, being examined more 
closely, was found to be the cause of the peculiar odour already 
mentioned ; and by experiments which will be immediatel 
related, it was found to be an elementary combustible body 
hitherto unknown, to which I have given the name of se/eniwn 
(from selené, the moon), to recall its analogy with tellurium. 
From its chemical properties this body must be placed between 
sulphur and tellurium, though it has more properties in common 
with sulphur than with tellurium. 
In the experiments made*with the first portions of this body 
which I had obtained, I found that it could be precipitated from 
its acid solutions by sulphuretted hydrogen gas. I accordingly 
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