250 Scientific Intelligence. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



I. Chemistry and Physics. 



1. On a new Element occurring in Tellurium, Antimony and 

 Copper, belonging to Me?ideleef"'s Eleventh Series. — In conse- 

 quence of a coincidence which he has observed between certain 

 of the lines in the ultra-violet spectra of tellurium, antimony and 

 copper, Getjnwalb argues the existence of a common impurity in 

 these three elements In his opinion, the substance in question 

 was originally present only in the tellurium, and that in the pro- 

 cess of reducing the other elements from their ores, a portion of 

 it has been transferred to these metals. On multiplication by 

 IJ- several of the above mentioned coincident lines are transformed 

 into lines belonging to the primary element " 5" in the spectrum 

 of water. In accordance with the principle laid down some time 

 ago by the author, this fact indicates that the impurity spoken of 

 consists, to a large extent at least, of an element occurring in the 

 eleventh horizontal line in Mendeleeffs tables. The character of 

 the spectrum itself shows that it cannot be any one of the known 

 elements in that series. Hence Griinwald believes it to be an un- 

 known element in the tellurium group with an approximate 

 atomic mass of 212, probably identical with the austrium of Brau- 

 ner. In general properties, therefore, it is an element closely re- 

 sembling tellurium and also antimony and hence will be difficult 

 to separate from these metals. On the assumption that copper is 

 an alkali-metal of low melting point, the new element probably 

 behaves in it as an electronegative constituent ; and hence copper 

 is ordinarly found combined with this difficultly-fusible and non- 

 metallic element. — J. Chem. Soc, lviii, 434, May, 1890. g. f. b. 



2. On the Chlorides of the Compound Ammoniums. — Le Bel 

 has observed a new kind of physical isomerism occurring in the 

 compound ammoniums. Assuming that the atoms or radicals in a 

 substituted ammonia are capable of movement about the central 

 nitrogen atom, and do not have fixed and definite relative positions, 

 the existence of two isomeric derivatives may be imagined with- 

 out introducing the hypothesis that they have been formed in 

 different ways, such as by the union of RC1 with NR' S or of R'Cl 

 with NRR' 2 . A remarkable group of cubic salts, formed from 

 chlorides of the type NRR' 2 C1, exists among the platinochlorides 

 of the amines. To this group methyl-tripropyl-ammonium platino- 

 chloride and trimethyl-propyl-ammonium platinochloride belong, 

 but the limit is passed by the trimethyl-isobutyl ammonium salt. 

 As a rule if a platinochloride does not differ from the cubic salts 

 by more than a single methyl-group, its crystalline form will be 

 so nearly a cube that very careful goniometric and optical exami- 

 nation will be necessary to prove that it is not cubic. Trimethyl- 

 isobutyl-ammonium platinochloride was first obtained in highly 

 bi-refractive needles, distinctly not cubic ; but on recrystallization 

 octahedra were obtained, closely resembling regular octahedra 



