Notes  on  Lithium.  \A^iZ^%T 
expel  ether,  and  then  treated  with  sodium  acetate  to  neutralize  the 
free  hydrochloric  acid.  The  liquid  now  contained  free  acetic  acid, 
and  was  precipitated  with  lead  acetate  in  slight  excess.  The  mix- 
ture was  filtered,  and  the  filtrate  saturated  with  hydrogen  sulphide 
to  remove  lead. 
After  another  filtration,  the  liquid  was  boiled  to  expel  the  excess 
of  the  gas,  cooled,  made  alkaline  with  sodium  hydrate,  and  heated 
with  Fehling's  solution  for  twenty  minutes.  An  abundant  precipi- 
tate of  cuprous  oxide  was  obtained. 
Action  of  Alkali. — 0-5  gram  of  the  substance  was  heated  with 
fused  potassium  hydrate  for  ten  minutes.  A  strong,  peculiar  odor, 
resembling  that  of  burning  bread,  was  emitted  during  the  fusion. 
The  fused  mass  was  allowed  to  cool,  then  dissolved  in  water,  and 
after  the  solution  had  been  first  acidified  with  diluted  sulphuric  acid^ 
and  then  carefully  neutralized  with  sodium  acid  carbonate,  it  was 
shaken  with  ether,  sp.  gr.  725,  which  left,  upon  evaporation,  a 
residue. 
Tests  applied  to  this  residue  failed  to  indicate  the  presence  of 
gallic  acid,  protocatechuic  acid  or  phloroglucol. 
NOTES  ON  LITHIUM.1  — 
By  Bnno  Sander,  Ph.D. 
For  a  score  of  years  after  its  discovery  by  Arfvedson,  lithium 
received  but  little  attention.  Berzelius  gave  it  a  bare  mention  in 
1824,  and  it  is  merely  alluded  to  by  others,  who  found  it  in  the 
waters  of  various  springs  in  Bohemia  and  elsewhere.  In  1841, 
Lipowitz  published  a  paper  in  the  Annates  de  Chimie  et  de  Phar- 
macie,  in  which  he  reviewed  the  combinations  of  lithium  with  vari- 
ous acids,  and  dwelt  particularly  upon  its  marked  affinity  for  uric 
acid,  with  which  it  forms  an  acid  salt,  "  the  most  soluble  of  all  the 
urates,  being  soluble  in  sixty  parts  of  water  at  122  degrees  F.,  and 
not  separating  therefrom  on  cooling."  Dr.  Alexander  Ure,  in  1843, 
refers  to  it  as  a  remarkable  solvent  of  sodium  urate,  but  his  use  of 
the  substance  in  practical  therapeutics  was  rendered  impossible  by 
its  scarcity  and  high  price,  and  it  was  not  until  1858  that  it  again 
attracted  any  attention  in  therapeutics.  About  that  year  Sir  A.  B. 
Garrod  writes  that  he  "  commenced  the  administration  of  lithium 
1  The  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  23,  638. 
