Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
July,  1904.  j 
Pharmacy  and  Chemistry. 
307 
emanations,  we  found  Welsbach's  exhibit  of  rare  earths.  Here  is 
given  ocular  proof  of  the  care  necessary  in  defining  an  element. 
Didymium  has  long  been  considered  an  element,  and  you  still  find 
didymium  salts  quoted  by  large  firms.  Didymium  nitrate  is  also 
here  shown  in  a  very  large  jar,  and  this  salt  has  a  fine  rose  color. 
Chemists  have  doubted  that  this  salt  contains  more  than  one  ele- 
mental substance;  but,  looking  at  the  two  products  standing  beside 
the  large  jar,  their  skepticism  is  changed  to  belief.  For  the  Wels- 
bach  Company  shows  a  neodymium  nitrate  differing  slightly  from 
the  rose-colored  mother-salt,  and  a  leaf-green  nitrate  of  neodymium, 
both  having  been  separated  from  the  so-called  didymium  nitrate. 
To  say  an  element  "  cannot  be  decomposed  "  had  better  be  modified 
to  "  has  not  been  decomposed,"  and  we  will  always  be  nearer  the 
truth. 
The  bright-red  banner  of  the  rising  sun  is  in  this  building,  and 
everywhere  you  may  go  in  this  Fair  it  floats.  Japan  of  all  the 
foreign  countries  has  the  most  complete  exhibits  next  to  Germany. 
It  convinces  us  thoroughly  of  the  great  mineral  wealth  of  the  tight 
little  islands.  Of  gold,  silver,  mercury,  copper,  iron,  lead,  coal, 
sulphur  and  oil,  Japan  has  abundance.  The  large  stibnite  crystals, 
over  a  foot  in  length,  are  always  interesting,  for  much  of  the  coarser 
grades  of  this  antimony  ore  are  liquated  and  sent  to  St.  Louis  to  be 
converted  into  antimony  salts.  The  reader  may  have  often  lifted  a 
small  portion  of  the  Japanese  Empire  behind  the  counter,  for  this 
country  is  the  richest  in  the  world  in  antimony. 
Texas  is  here,  and  you  should  not  miss  the  opportunity  to  take  a 
look  at  the  cinnabar  ores  of  Brewster  County,  on  the  Rio  Grande. 
This  State  will  some  day  be  a  big  producer  of  mercury;  1,000 
pounds  of  the  metal  is  shown  in  an  iron  kettle ;  a  large  cannon  ball 
floating  on  the  surface  of  the  mercury  convinces  the  public  that 
mercury  has  a  rather  high  specific  gravity. 
Niagara  Falls  is  represented  by  the  various  products  made  by  the 
electric  current.  Artificial  abrasive  materials,  as  crystallized  alumina, 
an  artificial  emery,  with  very  little  diluent,  as  iron  oxide  and  sand, 
carborundum,  a  carbide  of  silicon,  with  the  various  grindstones, 
hones,  etc.,  made  from  this  artificial  substitute  for  emery.  A  case 
of  chemicals,  such  as  caustic  soda,  bleaching  powder,  potassium 
chlorate,  etc.,  of  very  high  purity  as  made  by  electrolysis,  will  be  of 
interest  to  the  pharmacist. 
