494 
Chemical  Notes. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Oct.,  1880. 
powder,  infusible  and  possessing  much  similarity  to  glucina  or  magnesia. 
The  earth  has  a  sp.  gr.  of  3*864.  It  does  not  impart  any  color  to  the 
flame,  although  the  spark  spectrum  of  its  chloride  is  particularly  fine, 
containing  more  than  100  bright  lines.  A  number  of  its  salts  have 
been  prepared  and  are  described  by  Nilson. — Berichte  der  Chem.  Ges.^ 
xiii,  pp.  1430  and  1439. 
On  the  New  Elements  Thulium  and  Holmium. — Cleve  has  studied  the 
thulia,  extracted  from  the  mixture  of  rare  earths,  sufficiently  to  be  able 
to  describe  it  more  fully.  Both  the  oxide  and  its  salts  are  uncolored, 
like  those  of  ytterbium,  but  its  solutions  show  in  the  spectroscope  two 
absorption  rays,  which  do  not  appear  in  the  spectrum  of  pure  erbia. 
The  atomic  weight  of  thulium  is  approximately  170*7  if  we  accept  for 
the  oxide  the  formula  Tm203.  Soret  has  studied  and  figures  the  spec- 
tra of  the  several  rare  earths  of  the  yttria  group.  Besides  erbium  he 
identifies  the  earth  first  noted  by  himself,  under  the  designation  X,  and 
afterwards  independently  discovered  by  Cleve,  and  named  by  him  hol- 
mium, which  name  Soret  now  accepts,  an  earth  designated  as  Y/?  by 
Marignac,  and  independently  discovered  by  Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran  and 
named  by  him  samarium  ;  and  lastly  didymium. — Comptes  Rendus^  No. 
.91,  pp.  328  and  378. 
Organic  Chemistry.  —  Crystallized  Oxalic  Acid. — A.  Villiers  describes 
the  preparation  of  crystallized  anhydrous  oxalic  acid.  It  may  be 
obtained  by  dissolving  i  part  of  the  ordinary  acid  in  about  12  parts  of 
warm  concentrated  sulphuric  acid,  and  allowing  the  solution  to  stand 
for  several  days.  The  anhydrous  acid  is  deposited  in  remarkably  trans- 
parent, voluminous  crystals  of  the  form  of  the  octahedra,  with  a  rhom- 
bic base,  generally  modified  by  the  face  p  of  the  primary  prism,  with 
a  cleavage  parallel  to  this  face.  When  exposed  to  the  air  the  crystals 
take  up  two  molecules  of  water  and  fall  to  powder. — your.  Chem.  Soc, 
August,  p.  544. 
Behavior  of  Starch  with  Glycerin. — Sulkowsky  records  the  observa- 
tion that  starch  is  dissolved  with  ease  by  hot  glycerin,  and  hereby 
becomes  changed  into  the  soluble  condition.  If  some  60  grams  pul- 
verized starch  are  stirred  in  i  kilogram  concentrated  glycerin  and  the 
whole  heated  in  a  porcelain  dish,  with  continued  stirring,  there  occurs 
at  first  a  strong  swelling  up  of  the  starch  granules.  After  some  steam 
has  escaped  and  the  mass  is  heated  to  I30°C.,  the  consistency  increases 
so  considerably  that  the  stirring  requires  considerable  exertion.  The 
starch  granules  have  changed  into  an  amorphous  mass,  and  a  trans- 
