MISCELLANY* 
New Metal discovered in Sweden, by M. Mosander. — M. Mosander has 
detected in the cerite of Bassnaes, the mineral in which cerium was dis- 
covered thirty years ago, a new metal to which he has given the name of 
lantanum. 
The oxide of cerium extracted from the mineral by the usual means, 
contains nearly two-fifths of its weight of the oxide of the new metal. It 
is separated by calcining the nitrate of cerium mixed with the nitrate of 
lantanum and treating the residue with nitric acid diluted with 100 parts 
of water ; the oxide of lantanum, which is a more powerful base than the 
oxide of cerium, alone dissolves in the weak acid. 
The oxide of lantanum is not reduced by potassium, but this latter sepa- 
rates from the chloride of lantanum a grayish metallic powder, which 
oxidizes in water with the disengagement of hydrogen gas, and is converted 
into a white hydrate. 
The sulphuret of lantanum is produced by heating strongly the oxide in 
the vapor of sulphuret of carbon. It is of a pale yellow color, decom- 
poses water with the disengagement of sulphuretted hydrogen, and is con- 
verted into an oxide. 
The oxide of lantanum is of a brick-red color ; it is changed in hot 
water into a white hydrate, which restores the blue color to reddened lit- 
mus. It dissolves rapidly in weak acids, and forms with facility sub- 
salts. 
The salts of lantanum have an astringent taste without any mixture of 
sweetness. Their crystals are commonly of a rose color. The sulphate 
of potassa does not precipitate them except when mixed with the salts of 
cerium. 
Digested with a salt of ammonia the oxide is gradually dissolved, the 
ammonia at the same time being set free. 
The atomic weight of lantanum is less than that which has been as- 
signed to cerium, that is, to the mixture of the two metals. 
Acad, des Scien. 
Reagent for Nitric Acid and Nitrogen, by Mr. Desbassyus. — To detect 
the presence of nitric acid in a liquid, several grammes of very pure con- 
centrated sulphuric acid is to be added, and when the mixture is cool, 
several drops of a concentrated solution of the protosulphate of iron. If 
