Januaey 21, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



89 



other articles by Professor Giglioli are pub- 

 lished in the Archivio i^er V Antropolocjia e 

 ■I' Etnologia, Florence. 



D. G. Bbinton. 

 University of Pennsylvania. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC GHEMISTBY. 

 In the Comptes Rendus the question of 

 the identity of argon with nitrogen is taken 

 up by H. Wilde, and the description given 

 of an attempt to convert the spectrum of 

 the one into that of the other. At a pres- 

 sure of one millimeter and temperature of 

 — 76° the electric spark was passed through 

 nitrogen for eight hours, but the spectrum 

 remained unchanged. A negative result 

 was also obtained when a strong spark was 

 passed for eighteen hours through nitrogen 

 at a pressure of twenty atmospheres. The 

 spectrum of ai'gon also remained unchanged 

 by the passage of the spark at a pressure of 

 three millimeters at a temperature of —76°. 



The work of Moissan on the metallic car- 

 bids and silicids has now been carried out, in 

 conjunction with P. Williams, on the borids 

 of the alkaline earths. Calcium borate, 

 aluminum and carbon are heated together 

 in the electric furnace. Calcium borid is 

 obtained as a fine black powder which 

 under the microscope consists of transpar- 

 ent, yellow, cubic crystals. They scratch 

 the ruby, and are fusible at the temperature 

 of the electric furnace. The crystals do 

 not burn in the air until heated to redness ; 

 fluorin attacks them in the cold, chloriu at 

 a red heat ; hydrogen is without action at 

 this temperature. Water is without action 

 upon the crystals until a temperature of 

 1000° is reached. The fused borid is, how- 

 ever, acted upon by water with evolution 

 of hydrogen. The borid has the formula 

 CaBj., but there seems to be a less stable 

 borid with a smaller proportion of boron. 

 The strontium and barium borids are simi- 

 larly formed and possess analogous formu- 

 lae and properties. The borids of the alka- 



line earths thus do not fall in the same class 

 with the carbids and silicids. 



Professor Michaelis, of the University 

 of Eostock, has published, in the last Be- 

 riehte, the description of a considerable 

 number of organic compounds of selenium, 

 tellurium, antimony and bismuth. The 

 tetrachlorids of selenium and tellurium 

 unite with aromatic ethers, phenoles and 

 ketones, giving products in which two atoms 

 of chlorin are replaced by the organic rad- 

 ical. When the dichlorid of selenium is 

 used, both chlorin atoms are replaced. The 

 close analogy between selenium and tellu- 

 rium is shown in these compounds. With 

 antimony chlorid, anisol and phenetol re- 

 act in benzene solution only in the presence 

 of metallic sodium . Compounds of antimony 

 with three and two anisyl groups are de- 

 scribed, as well as a number of addition 

 products in which the antimony is quinti- 

 valent. Analogous bismuth compounds are 

 similarly formed. The whole work forms 

 a valuable contribution to the relatively 

 little known field of the compounds of or- 

 ganic radicals with the elements of higher 

 atomic weight. 



In the above number of the JBerichte, Mel- 

 ikoS and Pissarjewsky discuss the constitu- 

 tion of the salts of peruranic acid, which 

 have been previously studied by Fairley. 

 They consider the salts to have the formula 

 (RjOJ^UOj, and to be compounds of the 

 metallic peroxids with uranium tetroxid. 

 By treatment with aluminum hydroxid they 

 succeed in actually decomposing the salts 

 into the peroxids and UO^. 



Geobg Berg has added to the number of 

 ' complex acids' a compound of titanic acid 

 with malic acid. As described in the Zeit- 

 schrift fur anorganisehe Chemie it has the for- 

 mula 2Ti02.CjHg05, 6H,0 and crystallizes 

 in minute white prisms. When ammonia 

 is led over it, three molecules of the water 

 of crystallization are replaced by ammonia, 



