Scientific Intelligence. — Chemistry. 381 



place, they restore the fluidity by a greater or less addition of one or 

 the other of the fixed alkalies. The acetate which is thus formed has 

 no injurious effects, — and, besides milk contains naturally a small quan- 

 tity of acetate of potash, but not an atom of free or carbonated alkali. 

 It is proposed, from the result of these investigations, that the au- 

 thorities should ordain, 1st. that no milk should be sold except in seal- 

 ed measures, and 2d, that in each quarter of the city, one or two phar- 

 maceutists should be charged with the duty of examining from time 

 to time the quality of the milk offered for sale, and that penalties 

 should be exacted for every fraudulent alteration of quantity or qual- 

 ity. — Annates D^Hygiene Puhlique et de Medecine Legale, Juillety 

 1829. 



10. Discovery of a new metal named Thorium. — M. Dulong 

 communicated to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, on the 20th of 

 July last, in a letter from M. Berzelius, the discovery of a new earth. 

 " I have just discovered," says the Swedish savant, " a new earth, 

 which possesses almost all the properties of that which bore the name 

 of Thorina, and which has been ascertained to be only a phosphate 

 of yttria. It is in consequence of this striking analogy, that I have 

 retained the name of Thorina for this new substance. This earth is 

 white, and irreducible by charcoal and potassium. After being strongly 

 calcined, it is attacked by none of the acids, except concentrated 

 sulphuric, even after being treated with caustic alkalies. 



The sulphate of Thorina is very soluble in cold water, and almost 

 insoluble in boiling water, so that it may be freed from many other 

 salts, by washing the mixture with boiling water. Thorina dissolves 

 easily in carbonate of Ammonia. An elevation of temperature occa- 

 sions a precipitation of a part of the earth, but on cooling, the pre- 

 cipitate disappears. All the salts of Thorina have a very pure as- 

 tringent taste, very similar to that of tannin. The chloride of Tho- 

 rium treated with potassium is decomposed with a triple deflagration. 

 There results a grey metallic powder, which does not decompose 

 water, but which raised above a red heat, burns with a splendor, al- 

 most equal to that of phosphorus in oxygen gas. Nevertheless, 

 Thorium is feebly attacked by nitric and sulphuric acids. The hy- 

 drochloric, on the contrary, dissolves it with a brisk effervescence. 

 Thorina, or the oxide of Thorium, contains 11.8 oxygen. Its spe- 

 cific gravity is 9.4. Thorina exists in a new mineral which has been 

 found in very small quantity at Brevig, in Norway. — Bib. Univ. 

 Juillet, 1829. 



