Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
Oct.,  1879.  j 
Chemical  Notes. 
taste  of  the  other  yttria  earths.  The  sulphate  does  not  form  distinct 
crystals,  but  the  nitrate,  oxalate,  acetate  and  formiate  are  crystallizable. 
What  most  of  all  renders  the  discovery  of  scandium  interesting,  how- 
ever, is  that  its  existence  was  announced  in  advance.  In  the  publica- 
tion of  his  law  of  the  periodicity  of  the  elements,  the  Russian  chemist 
Mendeljeff  predicted  that  a  metal  possessing  an  atomic  weight  of  44 
would  be  found.  He  called  this  hypothetical  element  Eka-boron.  The 
characters  he  ascribed  to  it  agree  very  well  throughout  with  those 
found  by  Cleve  as  belonging  to  scandium,  and  enumerated  above.  The 
coincidence  here  is  if  anything  more  striking  than  in  the  case  of  gal- 
lium, which  answers  to  another  of  MendeljefFs  predicted  elements. — 
Ibid.,  p.  419. 
The  statements  as  to  the  point  of  solidifying  of  Bromine  have  varied 
greatly.  Balard  had  stated  that  it  was  fluid  at  — i8°C,  Liebig  that  it 
solidified  at  — 25°C,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  Regnault  and  others 
fixed  it  at  — 7-3°  to  — 7*5°C.  Jul.  Philipp  has,  therefore,  examined 
this  question.  He  found  that  purified  bromine  invariably  solidified  at 
— 7*2°  or  — 7*3°^'  The  bromine  before  purifying  solidified  at  — 9° 
to  — io°C.  He  then  added  iodine  and  chlorine  to  different  samples, 
with  the  design  of  determining  what  influence  their  presence  would 
have  upon  the  solidifying  point  of  the  bromine.  Two  per  cent,  of 
iodine  did  not  materially  change  it,  raising  it  slightly;  3  or  4  per  cent, 
of  chlorine,  however,  changed  it,  so  that  it  was  not  solid  at  — I5°C. 
Solid  bromine  has  a  brown  color,  conchoidal  fracture,  but  on  exposure 
to  the  moisture  of  the  air  takes  a  grayish  tint,  recalling  iodine. — Ber. 
der  Chem.  Ges.,  xii,  p.  1424. 
Organic  Chemistry. — The  study  of  the  decomposition  products  of 
the  vegetable  coloring  materials  is  being  steadily  pursued  by  German 
chemists,  and  is  throwing  much  light  upon  their  composition  and 
chemical  relationships.  Thus  the  decompositions  of  both  hematoxylin, 
the  coloring  matter  of  logwood,  and  brazilin,  the  coloring  matter  of 
Brazil  wood,  show  that  they  belong  to  the  class  of  phenol  colors,, 
although  their  exact  constitution  is  as  yet  an  open  question.  Richard 
Meyer  has  just  studied  the  behavior  of  hematoxylin  on  dry  distillation,  with 
a  view  of  contributing  to  a  solution  of  this  problem.  E.  Kopp  had 
found  that  brazilin,  when  submitted  to  dry  distillation,  yielded  resorcin, 
and  was  probably  a  resorcin-succinin.     Hematoxylin,  however,  when 
