TIIF. YAI.KNC'Y AM* SPECIFIC II MAT OF THK METALS 611 



resist oxidising agents with particular ease. Potassium hydroxide acts 

 on beryllium as on aluminium, hydrogen being disengaged and the 

 metal dissolved, but ammonia has no action on it. These properties of 

 metallic beryllium seem to isolate it from the series of the other metals 

 described in this chapter, but if we compare the properties of calcium, 

 magnesium, and beryllium we shall see that magnesium occupies an 

 intermediate position between the other two. Whilst calcium decom- 

 poses water with great ease, magnesium does so with difficulty, and 

 beryllium not at all. The peculiarities of beryllium among the metals 

 of the alkaline earths recalls the fact that in the series of the halogens 

 we saw that fluorine differed from the other halogens in many of its 

 properties and has the smallest atomic weight. Just the same is the 

 case with beryllium among the other metals of the alkaline earths. 



END OF THE FIRST VOLUME 



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