PROCEEDINGS. 



he was chemist of a silver mining company in the Freiburg district in 

 Germany, he met with a constant loss of 7 per cent, in his analyses, and 

 a close search with refined methods enabled him to announce to the 

 world the new metal Germanium. 



But I have digressed. The matter rested after D'Elhuyar's time until 

 the fame of the two great analysts, Berzelius and Klaproth, induced some 

 one to send to each of them a sample of the mineral. These chemists 

 soon decided that lime was not the main constituent and that though iron 

 was present it was only in mere traces. Both set themselves to solving 

 the problem and almost simultaneously announced to the world the 

 existence of a hitherto unknown element. There was considerable dis- 

 cussion as to which could claim the precedence, but the scientific world 

 has yielded the palm to Berzelius by adopting his name, Cerium, instead 

 of ochroit-erde proposed by Klaproth. In tracing out the history of this 

 interesting mineral however, we have really passed the date when the 

 apple of discord was thrown among the chemical family. The date of the 

 discovery of an oxide containing the unknown element Ce. was 1804, the 

 date of the discovery of the first of the rare earths was 1789 when 

 Klaproth isolated Zirconia. If this be disputed, for Zr. does not fulfil 

 all the conditions of a rare earth, we must yet anticipate 1804, for in 

 1794 Gadolin, a Finnish chemist, gave to the world Yttria, the oxide of 

 Yttrium which fulfils in every respect the conditions of our definition. 

 This element was discovered in a mineral from Ytterby, in Sweden, 

 which mineral has since been named in honor of this chemist Gadolinite. 



In 1818 Berzelius announced the discovery of a new oxide, Thoria, 

 in some rare minerals from the neighbourhood of Fahlun, Sweden. This 

 discovery he confirmed in 1828 when he found the same oxide in a 

 mineral from Brewig, in Norway. Before going into the history of the 

 very remarkable perio I which followed, let us see just what was known 

 up to 1835. Ceria, Zirconia, Thoria and Yttria were recognized as dis- 

 tinct oxides, each supposed to contain a distinct element. Only one of 

 these, however, Yttria, belongs to the rare earths, if we keep to the strict 

 letter of our definition. Such, then, was the knowledge of the rare 

 earths ; they were ordinary oxides of no more interest than lime or 

 baryta, nay, not so much, for they were of no practical use, they were 

 rare, and so of no interest except to seekers after curios. 



In 1837-38 a young Swedish chemist, a pupil of Berzelius, took up 

 the neglected earths and under his magic touch, for he was a genius, new 



