5  5  2  Chemical  Notes.  { k*^;$j** 
ized  name  of  Stockholm,  in  the  neighborhood  of  which  so  many  of 
the  yttria  minerals  are  found.  To  the  former  he  gives  an  atomic  weight 
of  about  113,  with  the  symbol  fmy  and  to  the  latter  less  than  108,  and 
the  symbol  Ho.  The  oxide  of  thullium  he  describes  as  being  of  a  light 
rose  color,  while  the  holmium  oxide  is  more  or  less  yellow.  No  distinc- 
tive reactions  are  given,  except  the  spectral  lines  which  he  considers 
characteristic  enough  to  justify  him  ' in  making  this  announcement. — 
Comptes  Rendus,  Sept.  1st,  1 879, 
Remarks  upon  the  supposed  New  Elements  of  Cleve. — At  the  next  meeting 
but  one  of  the  French  Academy  two  papers  were  read  in  criticism  of 
the  foregoing  announcement  of  Cleve.  Loret  points  out  that  the  two 
rays  regarded  by  Cleve  as  characteristic  of  holmium  were  first  noticed 
by  him  in  April,  1878,  and  were  then  said  to  belong  to  some  new  earth, 
associated  with  erbia  and  provisionally  designated  as  X.  Since  then 
Delafontaine  has  described  philippia,  and  shown  it  to  be  the  provisional 
X  of  Loret.  Again,  Loret  considers  that  the  single  red  ray,  which 
Cleve  ascribes  to  the  new  element  thullium,  is  hardly  proof  enough  to 
justify  one  in  making  any  statements  of  new  elements,  especially  as  it 
seems  to  be  found  in  the  spectrum  of  erbia  at  times,  and  again  in  mix- 
tures of  erbia  and  ytterbia  under  conditions  not  fully  studied  as  yet. 
Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran  also  gives  results  of  his  upon  different  erbia 
preparations,  which  confirm,  in  his  mind,  Loret's  opinion  as  to  the  earth 
first  designated  X,  but  leave  him  uncertain  as  to  whether  any  other 
new  earths  exist  in  the  erbia  preparations  or  not.  Until  the  spectral 
observations  can  be  confirmed,  by  well-defined  chemical  reactions,  it 
seems  at  least  premature  to  continue  these  announcements. — Ibid., 
Sept.  15th,  1879. 
The  supposed  Compound  Nature  of  the  Elements. — Prof.  J.  Norman 
Lockyer,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  recent  meeting  of  the  British  Asso- 
ciation, at  Sheffield,  makes  the  following  statements  :  "  Continuing  my 
researches  into  the  nature  of  the  so-called  elements,  I  have  found  that, 
when  carefully  distilled  metallic  sodium  was  condensed  in  a  capillary 
tube,  placed  in  a  retort  and  heated  in  a  Sprengel  vacuum,  it  gave  off 
twenty  times  its  volume  of  hydrogen.  Phosphorus,  carefully  dried  and 
submitted  to  the  same  treatment,  gave  off"  70  volumes  of  a  gas  which 
appeared  to  consist  chiefly  of  hydrogen.  Although  it  gave  some  of 
the  lines  of  phosphorus,  it  was  not  PH3>  as  it  had  no  action  upon  solu- 
tion of  cupric  sulphate.    A  specimen  of  magnesium,  carefully  purified 
