crucible was weighed with the metallic silver contained in it.
I made another experiment which showed that the weight of radium chloride regenerated was the same as that before beginning the operation.
These verifications are not so reliable as direct experiments; but they serve to indicate the absence of any significant error.
From its chemical properties, radium is an element of the group of alkaline earths, being the member next above barium.
From its atomic weight also, radium takes its place in Mendeleeff's table after barium with the alkaline earth metals, in the row which already contains uranium and thorium.
Characteristics of the Radium Salts.
The salts of radium, chloride, nitrate, carbonate, and sulphate, resemble those of barium, when freshly prepared, but they gradually become coloured.
All the radium salts are luminous in the dark.
In their chemical properties, the salts of radium are absolutely analogous to the corresponding salts of barium. However, radium chloride is less soluble than barium chloride; the solubility of the nitrates in water is approximately the same.
The salts of radium are the source of a spontaneous and continuous evolution of heat.
Fractionation of Ordinary Barium Chloride.
We have endeavoured to determine whether commercial barium chloride contains small quantities of radium chloride, which escape detection with the means of estimation at our command. For this purpose we fractionated a great quantity of commercial barium chloride, in the hope of thus concentrating the trace of radium chloride if such were present.
Fifty kilos. of commercial barium chloride were dissolved in water; the solution was precipitated by hydrochloric acid free from sulphuric acid, which yielded 20 kilos. of the precipitated chloride. This was dissolved in water and partially precipitated by hydrochloric acid, which gave 8·5 kilos, of precipitated chloride. This chloride was fractionated by the method used for the barium chloride containing radium; and at the end of the process, 10 grms. of chloride were obtained, corresponding to the least soluble part. This chloride showed no radio-activity; it therefore
