GLUCI'NUM (symbol G1)„ known also as GLYCLUM, and BERYLLIUM, is a metal whose atomic weight is 4.65 according to the system formerly in use, and 9.4 according to that now generally adopted; its specific gravity--is 2.1. It is white, mal leable, 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. It forms one oxide, GLIICINA.
From the researches of Debray, it follows that glucinum should be placed side by side with aluminium. These bodies are intermediate between the precious and the ordi nary metals, and both of them are characterized by the following properties: They are permanent in the air at high as well as at low temperatures; do not decompose water, even when they are at a white heat; are not attacked by sulphur, sulphureted hydrogen, or the alkaline sulphide; are not attacked by strong nitric acid at ordinary temperatures, and only slowly, even with the aid of heat; but dissolve readily in dilute sulphuric and hydrochloric acids.
Glucinum was first obtained from glucina by Kohler, in 1827, who procured it by decomposing the chloride of &cilium, which is obtained by evaporating a solution of glucina in hydrochloric acid. has since (1854) obtained it much more abund antly by applying a similar mode of proceeding to that employed by Sainte Claire Deville for the reduction of aluminium.