576 
Editorial. 
.(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I  November,  1898. 
EDITORIAL. 
NEW  ELEMENTS. 
History  is  not  only  being  made  rapidly  during  the  closing  days  of  this 
century,  but  science  is  being  remarkably  enriched  by  the  discoveries  of  particu- 
larly the  last  few  years.  It  is  only  a  few  years  since  that  Lord  Raleigh  and 
Professor  Ramsay  announced  the  discovery  of  an  unknown  element  in  the 
atmosphere.  In  the  course  of  their  experiments  upon  nitrogen,  they  found 
that  "  atmospheric  nitrogen  "  had  a  greater  density  than  "  chemical  nitrogen," 
and  that  this  was  not  due  to  the  presence  of  an  impurity,  but  to  the  existence 
of  a  new  element,  which  they  called  "argon."  This  was  subsequently 
examined  by  Professor  Olszewski,  and  its  melting  and  boiling-points  and 
critical  temperature  determined. 
A  few  months  after  the  publication  ot  this  work  Professor  Ramsay,  when 
studying  the  nature  of  gases  obtained  by  heating  minerals,  obtained  argon 
from  some,  but  he  also  obtained  from  a  mineral  brought  from  Sweden,  a  light, 
colorless  gas,  that  was  lighter  than  argon,  and  gave  a  different  spectrum,  and  in 
particular  gave  a  brilliant  D3  line  in  the  yellow.  This  line  had  heretofore  been 
noticed  in  the  solar  spectrum,  and  thirty  years  ago  was  attributed  by  Lockyer 
and  Frankland  to  a  hypothetical  element,  which  they  called  "helium.''''  There 
are  certain  analogies  between  argon  and  helium.  (See  this  Journal,  Novem- 
ber, 1895.) 
Professor  Ramsay  and  Mr.  Travers  have  recently  (June,  1898)  communicated 
to  the  Royal  Society  the  discovery  of  an  additional  gas  in  the  atmosphere. 
This  is  heavier  than  argon  and  less  volatile  than  nitrogen,  oxygen  and  argon, 
and  has  received  the  name  "krypton''''  (hidden).  These  two  chemists  con- 
tinued these  investigations,  and  later  announced  the  discovery  of  two  more 
constituents  of  atmospheric  air.  They  liquefied  large  volumes  of  argon,  using 
liquid  air  as  the  cooling  agent.  When  argon  was  passed  into  a  bulb  cooled  by 
liquid  air,  it  formed  a  liquid  in  which  a  white  solid  appeared.  By  evaporation 
of  the  liquid  they  obtained  a  gas  which  behaves  in  a  vacuum  tube  entirely 
differently  from  other  known  gases,  and  to  which  they  gave  the  name  "neon  " 
(new).  From  the  solid  they  obtained  a  gas  which  was  entirely  different  from 
argon,  although  resembling  it  in  general  character.  It  possesses  a  different 
spectrum  from  argon,  behaves  differently  at  low  temperatures,  and  the  authors 
conclude  that  it  is  elementary,  and  call  it  "  metargon.''''  It  holds  the  same 
position  towards  argon  that  nickel  does  to  cobalt,  having  approximately  the 
same  atomic  weight  but  different  properties.  There  appears  some  doubt 
among  certain  investigators  as  Professor  Schuster  and  Professor  Dewar  regard- 
ing the  presence  of  metargon  in  argon,  although  the  presence  of  krypton  and 
neon  are  fairly  well  established. 
Professor  Nasini,  of  Padua,  has  been  making  some  studies  on  the  gases  eman- 
ating from  the  earth  in  various  portions  of  Italy.  In  a  communication  to  the 
French  Academy  in  July,  he  announced  the  discovery  of  a  gas  which  had  not 
been  found  before  on  the  earth.  The  gases  from  the  Solfotara  di  Pozzuoli  con- 
tained a  gas  corresponding  to  the  undiscovered  element  coronium,  the  specific 
gravity  of  which  is  lighter  than  hydrogen. 
Charles  F.  Brush,  at  the  Boston  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  reported  on  some  experiments  which  he  has  been  car- 
