The earths of the titanium group had a cosmopolitan origin. The German chemist, Klaproth, discovered zirconia in 1789 while analyzing a zircon from Ceylon. Two years later the English clergyman, William Gregor, found titania, or "menachanits," as he called it, in a black sand from his own parish in Cornwall, but announced his discovery in such a modest manner that it made little impression on the scientific world. Klaproth rediscovered this earth four years later in a Hungarian red schorl, and named it "Tilanerde," or titania. Hisinger and Berzelius discovered ceria in 1803 while they were investigating the Swedish mineral "heavy stone of Bastnas," now known as cerite. Berzelius found thoria, the last of these earths, in 1828 in a specimen of syenite that had been sent to him from an island off the coasi of Norway. The difficult isolation of the metals titanium, cerium, zirconium, and thorium was accomplished by various methods involving the powerful reducing action of Vol. 9, No. 7 THE DISCOVERY OF THE ELEMENTS. XI 1233 4® IV. most acids, and may safely be plunged into water while red-hot (42). Titanium Joseph Priestley was not the only English clergyman to discover a new element.The Reverend William Gregor met with similar good fortune. He was born in 17152 in Cornwall, and was educated for the ministry at Bristol and Cambridge, where he made an excellent scholastic record, especially in mathematics and the classics. He held pastorates at Deptford near Totness, at Braton Clovelly in Devonshire, and finally at Creed near Grampound, Cornwall (2).He became intensely interested in the minerals of England, and acquired such great skill in analyzing them that Berzelius and other competent judges referred to him as ''a famous mineralogist" (3). He was a founder and honorary member of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, and his analyses of such substances as bismuth carbonate, topaz, wavellite, uranium mica (Uranglimmer) ( 16), and native lead arsenate (17) were of high excellence (4). The most interesting mineral that Mr. Gregor ever analyzed, however, was a black, magnetic sand from the Menachan valley in his own parish. His account of this analysis, as it appeared in Crell's Annalen in 1791, was introduced by the following editorial note: 23to&adjfuttgert unb 2$erfticfje iifer bett ffilettafamtr, einen tit gonwalf g#fimCe= ntn magnetijctjen ©one; t>om $rtt SSiliiam ©regoi* *). I* *. tjVcftt ©anb mitb in grnfjer $lengt tx ©onb tp fctttmrj, unb bat tem Stu&ern natb, einjgeJIebnlnbfett mit bem ©(ticfipubcc. ©cine Sbtnet finbeon peeptiebeneeOcilje, tjaben abet feine bcpimmte $igur. @r ip mit einem attbecn ftbmnbigs tpcifien ©anbe lenniflbr, btffcn sbrner »it( feinet flub. &ie fpejifiPbe ©et'tperc be#, bon bem anbtrtt btteeb ein ©ieb gereinigten, (cbitati |eit ©ante#, mat naib bee !SRetb»be be# £...