CHEMISTRY. 



143 



the Government of Nicaragua, Andrew B. Dick- 

 inson. 



V. Costa Rica. President (1863 to 1866), 

 Dr. Jesus Ximenez. Ministers : Exterior, 

 Public Instruction, Worship, and Justice, J. 

 Volio ; Inferior and Public Works, Ulloa ; Fi- 

 nances, War, and Navy, Echeverria. Area, 16,- 

 250 square miles; population (in 1860), 126,- 

 750. Capital, San Jose, with 30,000 inhabi- 

 tants. Minister of the United States near the 

 Government of Costa Rica (since 1861), Ch. N. 

 Riotte ; Minister of Costa Rica at Washington, 

 Louis Molina. Public receipts, about $1,000,000. 



The most important event in the history of 

 the Central American States was the attempt, 

 made in May, 1865, by the former President 

 Barrios, of San Salvador, to regain his power. 

 The towns of San Miguel and La Union declared 

 themselves in his favor, yet on May 29, his 

 partisans under Gen. Cabanas were completely 

 routed and dispersed in the vicinity of La 

 Union. Gen. Barrios himself, when on the 

 point of embarking with a number of his ad- 

 herents for San Salvador, was arrested by the 

 Government of Nicaragua in the port of Rea- 

 lejo, and in July delivered up to the Govern- 

 ment of San Salvador, upon the condition that 

 his life should be spared. The promise was 

 given by San Salvador, but not kept, and Gen. 

 Barrios was shot ; an act which produced every- 

 where, but especially in Central America, the 

 greatest indignation. 



The Captain-General and President for Life 

 of Guatemala, Rafael Carrera, died on April 

 14th. Toward the close of the year a revolu- 

 tionary movement broke out in Guatemala. 



CHEMISTRY. It is designed, in this article 

 and those which under other titles relate to its 

 subject, to furnish at least some hints or land- 

 marks of the progress, since our last previous 

 notice (1863), of this comprehensive and most 

 important science ; though it must be acknowl- 

 edged in the outset that, to the attitude and 

 tendencies in our time of chemical theory and 

 philosophy, it will be least of all possible to do 

 adequate justice. For the substance of some 

 of the brief notices following, and in some in- 

 stances also for their language, the compiler is 

 indebted to the valuable abstracts and notes of 

 Ppof. Wolcott Gibbs, in the American Journal 

 of Science, and of the scientific department of 

 the (London) Reader. 



I. ELEMENTS. The prospect of a speedy and 

 considerable increase in the number of known 

 chemical elements, especially as arising in the 

 years 1860-'61 through the spectroscopic dis- 

 covery of ccesium, rubidium, and thallium, has 

 not since been sustained. True, the existence 

 as elements of the three metals just named is 

 placed beyond a doubt, as is also that of indium 

 (Cyo., 1863). As to siderium, the writer has 

 met with no further information. It has, how- 

 ever, become admitted that the supposed ele- 

 ments, donarium, norium, and wodanum, are 

 not such ; and to the catalogue of bodies for a 

 time mistakenly considered as elementary, it 



appears that, as early claimed by Nicktes and 

 Gibbs, wasium must now be added. Quite re- 

 cently, Delafontaine and Popp have, inde- 

 pendently of each other, examined Bahr's 

 assumed oxide of wasium; and while both 

 agree that this contains no new element, the 

 former regards it as an oxide of cerium alone, 

 the latter as such oxide mixed with those of 

 yttrium and didymium. It is stated also that 

 Popp's researches have thrown doubt on the 

 elementary character of lanthanum. The 

 question as to erbium and terbium will he con- 

 sidered in the article YTTKIUM. See, also IN- 

 DIUM, THALLIUM, THOHIUM, and TUNGSTEN. 



II. ALLOTEOPIO STATES. In addition, under 

 this head, to the brief notices below, the reader 

 is referred to the article OZONE. 



Allotropic Conditions of Iron. These, with 

 the part they are believed to play in metallurgy, 

 form the subject of a communication by M. Do 

 Cizancourt (Comptes Rendus, Ixi., 578; Chem. 

 News, October 27, 1865). The author believes 

 that, in determining the qualities of iron, chem- 

 ical composition is secondary, the controlling 

 characteristics being the relations existing be- 

 tween the properties of the various products, and 

 the degrees of oxidation of the ores the metal 

 is obtained from. He adopts the distinction in 

 respect to iron made byBerzelius, mio ferrosum 

 and ferricum, considering these as allotropic 

 conditions analogous to those of sulphur and 

 phosphorus. Ferrosum is the metal as exist- 

 ing in the ores of protoxide ; ferricum, that 

 present in anhydrous peroxide ores. The most 

 characteristic form of ferrosum is the white 

 crystalline cast-iron (spiegel-eisen), readily pro- 

 duced especially from carbonates. This has a 

 strong affinity for carbon, and is to be ranked 

 chemically with bodies combining with one 

 equivalent of oxygen. Ferricum gives the 

 malleable metal, and also blistered iron ; and 

 the carbon which it takes up at high tem- 

 peratures, it tends to part with on cooling. 

 The former modification easily passes into the 

 latter; but the reverse change can scarcely 

 be effected. Ferricum belongs to the class of 

 bodies which combine with three or more equiv- 

 alents of oxygen, and always with an uneven 

 number. 



Allotropic Silicium and Carbonin Cast-Iron, 

 and their Influence on the Production of Steel 

 by the Bessemer Process. In a paper on this 

 subject, in the Chem. News, June 16, 1865, 

 Dr. T. L. Phipson argues the existence, as has 

 long been admitted in case of carbon, also of 

 two modifications of silicium in the various 

 sorts of cast or pig iron. He distinguishes the 

 modifications as aO and 50, aSi and JSi. ^ He 

 concludes that mere analysis of Camples of iron 

 proves little, and that the condition in which 

 the constituents just named exist in them 

 must be especially considered. It matters little 

 how much carbon or silicium may be present in 

 a pig iron, in order that it may make good Bes- 

 semer steel ; but it is important that both the 

 elements named should be present almost wholly 



