A  Piece  of  Pitchblende. 
JAm.  Jour.  Pharm 
\      April,  1909. 
the  pitchblende,  asked  and  obtained  permission  from  the  Austrian 
Government  to  draw  upon  these  residues,  and  a  ton  or  more  of  the 
material  was  shipped  to  Paris  and  there  treated  under  the  able 
direction  of  M.  Debierne.  From  the  crude  products  thus  obtained 
the  Curies  extracted  two  distinct  substances  of  most  remarkable 
radio-active  power. 
The  first  of  these,  which  was  separated  with  the  bismuth  and 
which  closely  resembles  the  latter  chemically,  was  named  polonium, 
Copyrighted,  1904,  by  William  J.  Hammer. 
Pierre  Curie 
in  honor  of  Mme.  Curie's  native  country,  Poland.  Although  it  has 
since  been  obtained  and  studied  by  other  scientists,  it  has  not  been 
prepared  in  the  pure  state,  indeed  it  is  still  doubtful  whether  it 
constitutes  a  chemical  element. 
Far  more  important  is  the  second  radio-active  substance  of  which 
the  discovery  was  shortly  afterwards  announced  by  the  Curies  and 
M.  Bemont.  It  has  appropriately  received  the  name  radium,  being 
fully  two  million  times  as  active  as  uranium,  and  it  has  been  clearly 
characterized  as  a  new  element.  It  must  be  admitted  that,  owing  to 
the  extremely  precious  nature  of  the  radium  compounds,  little  at- 
