CHEMISTRY. 



87 



decijtium from didymium and terbium. The 

 second band is narrow, intense, not defined on 

 its edges, and is in the less refrangible part of 

 the blue, corresponding to a wave-length of 

 4,780. This is nearly the exact place of one of 

 the didymium bands, but the latter is far less 

 intense. Finally, nearly on the limit of the 

 blue and green there is an appearance of the 

 third band. 



Another new element is announced by Dr. 

 J. Lawrence Smith, which he calls mosandrum ; 

 this, too, was found in samarskite. The earth 

 (mosandra) of this metal belongs to the cerium 

 group. 



Finally, Marignac has described some of the 

 compounds of a new element found in gado- 

 linite, and towhich he gives the name of ytter- 

 bium. The atomic weight of 131 is provision- 

 ally adopted for this element. The nitrate is 

 decomposed by heat without coloration; the 

 oxide is less acted on by acids than the other 

 oxides of the same group ; and sundry other 

 peculiar reactions serve to distinguish the new 



element from thorium, the only element known 

 to possess so high an atomic weight. 



Chemistry of the Grape. In order to test 

 the action of certain special fertilizers on the 

 quantity and quality of grapes, Professor 0. 

 A. Goessmann instituted a series of field ex- 

 periments with the Concord grape and the 

 wild purple grape ( Vitis labrmca, L.), an ac- 

 count of which is published in vol. ii. of the 

 " Proceedings of the American Chemical So- 

 ciety." His examination was for the most part 

 confined to the berries and the juice of the 

 grapes. The former were tested for the 

 amount of water they lost at 100 C., and the 

 total dry matter left behind at that tempera- 

 ture. The juice of the grapes, obtained after 

 crushing in a hand-press, was examined for its 

 specific gravity, its percentage of grape sugar, 

 and its free acid. Ash analyses also were 

 made, but a detailed discussion of their results 

 is withheld by the author for the present. 

 The following tables show the results of ex- 

 periments with grapes not fertilized: 



It will be noticed from the above tabular 

 statement that with the middle of August be- 

 gan a remarkable change in the growth of the 

 Concord grape. The free acid became most 

 prominent in the juice about the first week in 

 August, sank to less than half its quantity to- 

 ward the close of that month, and amounted 

 at the beginning of October to only one fifth 



of the August maximum. The sugar began to 

 increase at the same time, and continued to 

 increase till the fruit was ripe. 



In the following table are given the results 

 of observations on various kinds of cultivated 

 ripe grapes, all as far as possible collected at 

 the same stage of maturity. Other varieties 

 not mentioned were also examined : 



The different kinds of grapes above mentioned be- 

 haved, in many instances, quite remarkably unlike 

 each other in regard to the action of their juice to- 

 ward basic acetate of lead. The latter produces in 

 every case a voluminous colored precipitate ; yet 

 these colors seem to result from the presence of sev- 

 eral distinctly different pigments in the grapes, pe- 



culiar, in all probability, to the wild native varieties 

 from which our cultivated ones have been produced. 

 This reaction may prove of practical use as an aid in 

 tracing the relationship to each other of the differ- 

 ent varieties ^ of grapes under cultivation. Dr. G. 

 Engelmann, in his excellent description of the true 

 American grape-vines, incidentally states that some 



