Chemistry and Physics. 259 
SCLEN TIPPCVIN PELL GEN C E. 
I. CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. 
1. Helium, a constituent of certain Minerals.—In a paper by 
W. Ramsay, J. Norman Corie and M. Travers, read before 
the Chemical Society on June 20, the results are given of an 
extended series of experiments upon the gas yielded by cleveite 
and allied minerals, to which the name of helium was given by 
Ramsay in the first account of its discovery a few months since, 
as already noted in these pages. This name was based upon the 
fact that the spectrum of the gas in question is characterized by 
a yellow line, which is very nearly, if not quite, coincident (see 
remarks on p. 261) with the line D, in the solar spectrum (wave 
length 5875:°982 Rowland). It will be remembered that some 
thirty years since Lockyer and Frankland gave the name helium 
to S hypothetical solar element corresponding to the absorption 
line D,. | 
The authors recall the fact at the outset that Palmieri states 
that a yellow spectral line with wave length 587°5 was obtained 
by him from a soft substance occurring as a lava-like product 
ejected by Vesuvius. They also allude to the investigations of 
Hillebrand on the various kinds of uraninite and the gases 
occluded by them which he regarded as nitrogen, and show that 
they actually contain 10 p. c. by volume of this gas, enough to 
explain the confirmatory chemical experiments showing the 
presence of nitrogen as also the strong nitrogen spectrum—for 
the spectrum of helium is masked by a comparatively small 
amount of nitrogen. It is added that if Hillebrand had operated 
with cleveite he would in all probability have discovered helium. 
A large number of minerals have now been tested, 2 to 5 grams 
of the coarsely powdered substance in each case being heated to 
redness in a small bulb of combustion-tubing, previously exhausted 
by a Topler pump. The details as to manipulation and the ana- 
lytic processes applied to remove gases evolved with the helium 
(hydrogen, etc.) cannot be described here. The following species 
yielded helium and in most cases hydrogen also: Yttrotantalite, 
samarskite, hjelmite, fergusonite, tantalite, pitchblende, polycrase, 
all containing uranium; also, monazite, xenotime, orangeite. 
Negative results were obtained from a number of other minerals, 
including columbite, perofskite, thorite, allanite, gadolinite and 
others. 
After briefly considering the composition of the minerals 
named with a view to deciding as to what constituent is effective 
in retaining helium, the authors remark: “From these details, it 
may be concluded that the helium is retained by minerals con- 
sisting of salts of uranium, yttrium, and thorium. Whether its 
presence is conditioned by the uranium, the yttrium or the thorium, 
we are hardly yet in a position to decide. To judge by the Cor- 
