December 0, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



809 



ing,' a fate to which land and water forms are 

 stated to fall prey. An example of a country 

 that has apparently gone wading ' up to its 

 knees ' has been mentioned in a previous 

 article (No. 498). 



A favorite habit of physiographers is to 

 represent rivers as wandering around with the 

 intent of ' discovering ' something, or ' at- 

 tacking ' or ' defending ' themselves against 

 a foe. ' Strategy ' and ' tactics ' are employed 

 by a class of desperate characters known tech- 

 nically as ' pirates,' which, when successful, 

 result in the ' decapitation ' or ' capture ' of 

 the object of their ' assault.' The mysteries 

 of ' sand-tactics ' and ' island- tying ' are re- 

 vealed only to the initiated who have fully 

 mastered this hierarchal language. We for- 

 bear to enumerate further examples, or to 

 offer presumptuous comments on the nomen- 

 clature; but if any shall be so bold as to con- 

 tend that it is dignified, and sanctioned by 

 tradition and good taste, we may venture to 

 entertain some doubt. 0. E. Eastman. 



Harvard University. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES. 



' BERYLLIUM ' OR ' GLUOINUM.' 



Since the Council of the American Chem- 

 ical Society has requested the smaller Inter- 

 national Committee on Atomic Weights to 

 submit the question of choice between the two 

 names ' beryllium ' and ' glucinum ' to the 

 whole or larger committee in order that uni- 

 formity of usage may be secured it is evident 

 that a considerable difference of opinion exists 

 among American chemists as to the advisabil- 

 ity of adopting the latter name. 



The question is one of decided importance 

 in indexing our chemical literature, and as 

 I have had this matter brought continually to 

 my attention during the preparation of a 

 bibliography of the element, now complete in 

 card form, I shoiild like to present the very 

 strong reasons for the universal use of ' beryl- 

 lium,' at least as they appear to me. These 

 reasons are two and may be summarized as 

 (1) priority and (2) usage. 



Priority. — It has been generally supposed 

 by chemists who have not carefully looked 

 into the matter that the name ' glucinum ' 



or at least ' glucine ' originated with Vau- 

 quelin, the discoverer of the element, but this 

 is not the case. In fact a distinction should 

 be made between the terms ' glucinum ' and 

 ' glucine ' for the former first came into use 

 many years afterward when the metal itself 

 was obtained and the real claim for priority 

 must be a question between ' glucine ' and 

 ' berylerde ' from which the others were de- 

 rived. 



Vauquelin himself uses the clause ' la terre 

 du Beril ' exclusively in his first two articles 

 on the subject in speaking of the new oxide 

 he had discovered {Annales de chim., 26, 155, 

 and 26, 170). The term 'glucine' was pro- 

 posed by the then editors of the Annales, 

 Guyton and Fourcroy, in a note at the end 

 of Vauquelin's first article and signed simply 

 ' Redacteur.' Vauquelin evidently presented 

 his results for the second time to the French 

 Society of Mines, for they again appear in the 

 Journal des mines, 8, 553. Here also Vau- 

 quelin uses only the clause ' la terre du Beril ' 

 but gives support to the term ' glucine ' by a 

 note at the end of his article as follows : " La 

 propriete la plus caracteristique de cette terre 

 etant de former du sels d'une saveur sucree, les 

 Qens. Guyton et Fourcroy m'ont conseille de 

 lui donne le nom de glucine de (yAii/cr/?), 

 doux, Cette denomination sera assez signifi- 

 ante pour aider le memoire; elle ne prendra 

 pas dans son etymologie un sens trop stricte- 

 ment determine, et ne presentera pas d'ideas 

 fausement exclusive, comme celles que I'on 

 tire du nom de la pierre qui fourni le premier 

 echantillon de la substance nouvelle, etc." 



Vauquelin's adoption of ' glucine ' appears 

 from the character of the argument he puts 

 forth to be at least half hearted. He first 

 actually employs ' glucine ' in his third article 

 entitled 'Analyse de I'emeraude du Peron' 

 (Annales de chim., 26, 259), prefacing its use 

 with ' on a donne le nom de glucine.' 



The clause ' la terre du Beril ' was trans- 

 lated into German as ' Berylerde ' in the re- 

 prints of Vauquelin's articles and became the 

 name used thereafter by all of the German 

 and Swedish chemists who did much the larger 

 portion of the work of developing the chem- 

 istry of the element. 



