Note 14 — PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY CHAPTER XV THE GROUPING OF THE ELEMENTS AND THE PERIODIC LAW

When in 1871 I wrote a paper on the application of the periodic law to the determination of the properties of hitherto undiscovered elements, I did not think I should live to see the verification of this consequence of the law, but such was to be the case. Three elements were described—ekaboron, ekaaluminium, and ekasilicon—and now, after the lapse of twenty years, I have had the great pleasure of seeing them discovered and named Gallium, Scandium, and Germanium, after those three countries where the rare minerals containing them are found, and where they were discovered. For my part I regard L. de Boisbaudran, Nilson, and Winkler, who discovered these elements, as the true corroborators of the periodic law. Without them it would not have been accepted to the extent it now is.