Chemistry and Physics. 243 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



I. Chemistry and Physics. 



1. An Attempt at a Chemical Conception of the Universal 

 Ether. — D. J. Mendeleeff, the celebrated author of the Periodic 

 System of the Elements, has published some speculations in 

 regard to the ether. 



From a realistic standpoint it is inevitable that weight and 

 chemical individuality should be ascribed to the ether. It must 

 be a distinct chemical substance so light that it can escape the 

 attraction of the fixed stars by the swiftness of the motion of its 

 molecule ; it can have no chemical affinity ; its power of diffusion 

 must be so great that it can penetrate all bodies, and thus elude 

 being weighed, although it actually possesses a very minute 

 weight. It can be assumed to be an inactive gas of the argon- 

 helium series with very small atomic weight. By means of 

 m£e?*polation the author has predicted new elements (scandium, 

 gallium, and germanium), and he ventures to make eatfmpola- 

 tions below helium. In the place before hydrogen he assumes 

 the existence of an inactive element, which possibly is identical 

 with coronium, with an atomic weight estimated at about 0*4. 

 The ether must have a still smaller atomic weight, the value of 

 which, <^0'17, on account of the double extrapolation, is very 

 uncertain. For the ether as an element the author proposes pre- 

 liminarily the name Newtoninm. He calculates also, that, in 

 order that it might escape from the largest bodies of the uni- 

 verse, the atomic weight of the ether might necessarily be as small 

 as one-millionth of that of hydrogen. 



The author gives, in addition, a realistic explanation of radio- 

 activity by supposing that the radio-active elements (U, Th, Pa) 

 on account of their abnormally high atomic weights are capable 

 of holding a relatively large number of the ether atoms about 

 their large centers of mass, without combining with them chem- 

 ically, and that the arrival and departure of the ether molecules 

 is accompanied by disturbances in the ethereal medium which 

 produce the rays of light. — From an abstract in Chem. Central- 

 Blatt, 1904, i, 137. » h. l. w. 



2. Gold Fluoride. — Since gold frequently accompanies fluor- 

 spar in natural deposits, it seemed possible that gold fluoride 

 might play a part in the formation of such deposits. Therefore, 

 Victor Lenher has undertaken a study of the relations of gold 

 and fluorine. Finely divided oxide of gold was found to be 

 entirely unattacked by hydrofluoric acid, even in the presence of 

 nitric acid. It was found to be impossible to prepare gold 

 fluoride by the interaction of silver fluoride and gold chloride, 

 for the substances reacted as follows : 



AuCl 3 + 3 AgF + 3H 2 = 3 AgCl + Au(OH) 3 + 3HF. 



