Chemistry and Physics. 155 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



I. Chemistry and Physics. 



1. Canadium, an Alleged New Element of the Platinum 

 Group. — The announcement is made by A. G. Fkench, a metal- 

 lurgist of the Nelson district in British Columbia, that he has 

 discovered a new noble metal and has named it canadium in honor 

 of the Dominion. It was found in the dike rocks in the Nelson 

 district, occurring associated with platinum metals in quantities 

 from a few pennyweights to three ounces per ton. It occurs pure 

 in semi-crystalline grains, and in short rods about half a milli- 

 meter in length and one-tenth of a millimeter in thickness. It 

 has been found also in the form of scales in platinum-bearing 

 ores. These particles, which have a bluish-white color, contain 

 the metal alloyed with a volatile substance which may be osmium, 

 as it is dispelled by the blowpipe, leaving a brilliant bead of " cana- 

 dium." The new metal is not platinum, ruthenium, palladium, 

 nor osmium, as it is much softer than these and is more fusible, 

 being quite readily melted by the blowpipe. It is not oxidized 

 by long heating in the oxidizing blowpipe flame. It is soluble in 

 nitric and hydrochloric acids, and in mixtures of the two acids with- 

 out residue, and the solution in nitric acid gives no precipitate 

 with sodium chloride solution. Therefore it is not silver, a fact 

 which is also indicated by the circumstance that the metal is not 

 blackened by alkaline sulphides. The metal is not colored by 

 tincture of iodine, and the nitrate solution gives no precipitate 

 with potassium iodide. These tests show that it is not palladium. 

 Its melting-point is somewhat lower than that of gold or silver, 

 and very much lower than that of palladium. It is electro-neg- 

 ative to silver. When it is alloyed with gold and silver in "part- 

 ing " proportions, dilute nitric acid dissolves the silver first and 

 then the new element, leaving gold and the usual brown form, 

 but if the action is stopped when the silver is all dissolved, and 

 the dark residue is then dried and pressed with a knife-blade, the 

 color is a most beautiful and brilliant white. The new metal 

 may then be dissolved by further treatment with nitric acid, pre- 

 cipitated by zinc, and cupelled with lead to a white bead which 

 is not colored by alkaline sulphides. 



If the description given is accurate, a new metal would seem 

 to be indicated, and a more thorough chemical examination on a 

 larger scale, which is intended to be made soon, will be awaited 

 with much interest. — Chem. JVeios, civ, 283. h. l. w. 



2. The Alleged Complexity of Tellurium. — The anomalous posi- 

 tion of the atomic weight of tellurium in the Periodic System has 

 led to many attempts in recent years to separate it into elements 

 of higher and lower atomic weights, and many such efforts have 

 led to negative results. However, some recent work has indi- 

 cated that the fractional decomposition of tellurium tetrachloride 



