Glucinum

Glucinum, or BERYLLIUM (sym. Gl., eq. 9·4), is a metal with a specific gravity of 2·1. It is white, malleable, and fusible below the melting-point of silver. It does not burn in air, oxygen, or sulphur, but in the first two substances it becomes covered with a thin coat of oxide. It combines readily with chlorine, iodine, and silicon. Even when heated to redness, it does not decompose water. It dissolves readily in hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, and in a solution of potash, but is insoluble in ammonia, and only slightly acted on by nitric acid. Glucinum was first obtained from glucina by Wöhler in 1827, who procured it by decomposing the chloride of glucinum, obtained by evaporating a solution of glucina in hydrochloric acid. Debray afterwards (1854) obtained it much more abundantly by a method similar to that employed by Sainte-Claire Deville for the reduction of aluminium. The name glucinum or glycinum (from the Gr. glukus or glykys, 'sweet') was given to the metal on account of the taste of its salts.