Note 42 — Chapter XVII · BORON, ALUMINIUM, AND THE ANALOGOUS METALS OF THE THIRD GROUP

The specific heat of cerium determined (1870) by me, and afterwards confirmed by Hillebrand, corresponds with that atomic weight of cerium according to which the composition of two oxides should be Ce2O3 and CeO2. Hillebrand also obtained metallic lanthanum and didymium by decomposing their salts by a galvanic current, and he found their specific heats to be near that of cerium and about 0·04, and it is therefore justifiable to give them an atomic weight near that of cerium, as was done on the basis of the periodic law. Up to 1870 yttrium oxide was also given the formula RO. Having re-determined the equivalent of yttrium oxide (with respect to water), and found it to be 74·6, I considered it necessary to also ascribe to it the composition Y2O3, because then it falls into its proper place in the periodic system. If the equivalent of the oxide to water be 74·6, it contains 58·6 of metal per 16 of oxygen, and consequently one part by weight of hydrogen replaces 29·3 of yttrium, and if it be regarded as bivalent (oxide RO), it would not, by its atomic weight 58·6, find a place in the second group. But if it be taken as trivalent—that is, if the formula of its oxide be R2O3 and salts RX3—then Y = 88, and a position is open for it in the third group in the sixth series after rubidium and strontium. These alterations in the atomic weights of the cerite and gadolinite metals were afterwards accepted by Clève and other investigators, who now ascribe a formula R2O3 to all the newly discovered oxides of these metals. But still the position in the periodic system of certain elements—for example of holmium, thulium, samarium, and others—has not yet been determined for want of a sufficient knowledge of their properties in a state of purity.