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X. On Scandium. Part II.* 

 By Sir WILLIAM CROOKES, D.Sc., LL.D., For.Sec.R.S. 



Received December 14, 1909, and April 29, 1910, Read January 20 and 



June 2, 1910. 



SINCE the publication of the first part of my paper on Scandiiim,f G. EBERHARD,| of 

 the Astrophysical Observatory, Potsdam, reasoning from the fact that the strongest 

 lines of the scandium spectrum are observed in the spectra of stars in diverse stages 

 of development, has come to the conclusion that scandium must be universally 

 distributed on the earth. Investigating the arc spectra of 366 minerals and rocks, he 

 obtained the remarkable result that scandium in small quantities is actually one of 

 the most widely distributed earth elements. He shows that it occurs most frequently 

 in zirconium minerals in beryls, titanates, columbites, and titanocolumbites of the 

 rare earths also in micas ; and, finally, that specimens of wolframite and tinstone 

 from Saxony and Bohemia contain scandium in sufficient quantity to make its 

 extraction advantageous. 



These results of EBERHARD were quickly verified by Prof. R. J. MEYER, Berlin 

 University, who, in a preliminary paper, has described experiments on extracting 

 scandia from the Zinnwald wolframite. Prof. MEYER concludes that this wolframite 

 contains from 0'14 to 0'16 per cent, of rare earths, and that these rare earths contain 

 0"30 to 0"33 per cent, of scandia. Thus the original wolframite Avould contain about 

 0-15/100x0-315/100 = O'04725/IOOOO, or about O'OOOS per cent, of scandia. Prof. 

 MEYER has worked out two methods of separating scandia from the wolframite rare 

 earths : (a) Precipitation with hydrofluoric acid from an intermediate product in 

 which the scandium has been concentrated by an oxalic acid precipitation, and (6) 

 precipitation with hydrofluosilicic acid, or sodium silicofluoride in acid solution. The 



* The descriptions and analyses of the following salts were communicated to the Society on 

 December 14, 1909, as now printed : Scandium aurochloride, platinocyanide, iodate, sulphite, malate, 

 malonate, tartrate, racemate, Isevotartrate, and mesotartrate. 



t 'Phil. Trans.,' A, vol. 209, pp. 15-46, March 4, 1908. 



J 'Sitzungber. Kgl. Preuss. Akad. Wissensch.,' 1908, xxxviii., 851. 



'Zeit. fur Anorg. Chem., lx., 134, November 17, 1908; and 'Chemical News,' xcix., 85, 97, 

 February, 1909. 



VOL. CCX. A 468. 18.6.10 



