Notes

Abstract

PRESS messages from New York contain an account of the discovery, by Prof. Baskerville, of the University of North Carolina, of two new elements possessing somewhat remarkable properties. By distilling thorium oxide in a quartz tube with carbon and chlorine there are produced a greenish condensable vapour to which the name berzilium is given, and a crystalline, pinkish substance which adheres to the quartz tube and is named carolinium, whilst a certain quantity of thoria remains unchanged in the tube. Prof. Baskerville has at his disposal 5 grams of carolinium and 2.5 grams of berzilium, presumably in the form of volatile chlorides. In a lecture before the Chemists' Club Prof. Baskerville exhibited the two elements in a darkened room, and showed that each of them is capable of shedding an illumination through tubes of copper, brass, iron and glass, all covered with cloth. Further investigations are in progress, in which Prof. Zerban, of Berlin, will cooperate.