é 
460 Brush and Penfield—Scovillite, a new phosphate. 
The preliminary examination proved the mineral to be an 
infusible hydrous phosphate, affording no coloration when 
treated with cobalt solution, but when fused with salt of phos- 
phorus and borax it gave a remarkable rose-colored bead, both 
in the oxidizing and reducing flames. The mineral is soluble in 
hydrochloric and nitric acids. Qualitative analysis showed it 
to be essentially a hydrous phosphate of the cerium and yttrium 
metals with a trace of iron and a small amount of carbonic 
acid. As so few minerals contain these rare earths, and the 
methods for their separation and determination are frequently 
attended with difficulty and uncertainty, we have thought 
proper to give in detail the methods employed in the analyses. 
The mineral was dissolved in hydrochloric acid and the met- 
als were precipitated from the acid solution as oxalates. The 
oxides obtained from igniting this precipitate were easily solu- 
ble in dilute acids, giving light rose-colored solutions from 
which, on addition of a solution of potassium sulphate, a pre- 
cipitate of the sulphates of the cerium metals was separated. 
This precipitate, first freed from all traces of the yttrium met- 
als, gave no reaction for cerium when tested by Gibbs’s method* 
_with peroxide of lead, but solutions of the oxides examined 
with the spectroscope showed the absorption bands characteris- 
tic of didymium. An acetic solution of the oxides was super- 
saturated with ammonia, and the precipitate which was formed 
was filtered off and thoroughly washed ; this precipitate, when 
sprinkled with iodine, gave the characteristic blue coloration 
due to the presence of lanthanum. 
In the filtrate from the precipitated sulphates of the cerium 
metals, the yttrium metals were thrown down as oxalates from 
hot acid solutions. The precipitate had a faint pink color, and 
when ignited and dissolved in acid the solution showed with 
the spectroscope the erbium absorption bands. The spark 
* W. Gibbs. this Journal, II, xxxvii, 352. 
+ Fresenius’ Qualitative Analysis (Johnson’s edition), p. 125. 
