The principles of inorganic chemistry / by Wilhelm Ostwald ; tr.with the author's sanction by Alexander Findlay.

Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The principles of inorganic chemistry / by Wilhelm Ostwald ; tr.with the author's sanction by Alexander Findlay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    80/826 (page 48)
    conspicuous and unpleasant smell. This substance is produced in the decomposition of many animal substances,, e.g. eggs and the “smell of rotten eggs” thereby produced is m reality the smell 1 of the compound of sulphur and hydrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen. j Selenium and Tellurium are two very rare elements whose com-. pounds are similar to those of sulphur, whereas the free elements differ in their properties. Selenium is generally a black-red, solid substance which does not conduct electricity. Resides this, however another form of selenium is known which has a half-metallic lustre and a slight electrical conductivity. In nature, selenium occurs almost entirely in the form of compounds; occasionally, it is found in t^TeSurium il a° grey, solid substance with metallic lustre, and conducts electricity like a metal. It, also, occurs in nature generally in compounds. C. The Nitrogen Group Nitrogen is a gaseous element occurring, to a preponderating extent in the free state f the amount of the nitrogen compounds fZs the with that of elementary nitrogen in nature, is smal ■ , chief constituent of atmospheric air, which is a mixture (not a chemical compound) of fths nitrogen and Tth oxygen by vo um ^ - ■ can be understood from the known properties of the air £ colourless odourless, and tasteless. By great cold it, also, can condensed to a liquid; Avith greater difficulty, however, than oxygen. Tts boiling point lies lower than that of oxygen, viz, - 194 y Although the nitrogen compounds are, in amount, inferior to the crpp nitrogen they are, nevertheless, of very great importance, ance the most important constituents of the vegetable and animal structure^ Ire “troge compounds. Especially the substance o the musles and the contents of the cells, the so-called protoplasm, to which the . ‘““of'the bet“erC]town “o^pounT of nitrogen in the mineral elementary nitrogen possesses only in a teiys lg g t]lerefore of interacting chemically_ with other. bobtail characterised as a chemically inei start from SEE iSr^^Or^t be prepared from other on account of then similaii y _ds The free elements the similarity of the corresponding compounds. themselves are widely different.