EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
405 
green lines, I am confirmed in my opinion that this line 
forms an integral part of the calcium spectrum. The account 
of the authors’ process for the separation of their supposed 
new metal from the deposit formed on boiling the water 
seems also to be quite inadequate to separate lime from an 
accompanying similar metal. 
“ Experimentalists in this new branch of chemical analy¬ 
sis should be warned against relying too much upon the 
chromo-lithographic drawings of these spectra, published in 
the Philosophical Magazine. Setting aside the differences 
in the appearance of a metallic spectrum, which are caused 
by variations in the intensity of the light and in the diameter 
of the slit, any person who has once seen these brilliantly 
coloured bands through a good instrument will be convinced 
of the utter hopelessness of any coloured copy, more espe¬ 
cially when done by a lithographic process for the purposes 
of book illustration, being more than a very distant resem¬ 
blance of the real object. Messrs. Kirchhoff and Bunsen’s 
description and illustrations are excellent as far as they go, 
but they by no means exhaust the subject. An attentive 
observer will easily discover lines and other phenomena of 
■which they have made no mention, and which ought cer¬ 
tainly to be included in any drawings which profess to re¬ 
present these spectra with any degree of accuracy. I am at 
present engaged in preparing such drawings, and will pub¬ 
lish them as soon as completed.” 
In the Journal fur prakt. Chemie it is likewise stated that 
Bunsen has discovered this new alkaline metal in the waters 
of several mineral springs. It exists in them, he says, toge¬ 
ther with potassium, sodium, and lithium, and its presence 
may he shown by the spectral analysis with the greatest faci¬ 
lity, although only a few milligrammes are contained in 
several kilogrammes of the material. The author gives only 
a very brief preliminary notice of the new metal, promising 
a more extended investigation. The chloride may be distin¬ 
guished from the chlorides of sodium and lithium by the 
yellow precipitate which it gives with chloride of platinum. 
It is distinguished from potassium by the solubility of its 
nitrate in alcohol. The vapours of the compounds of this 
xxxiv. 30 
