“ Germanium compounds on fusion with alkaline carbonates and sulphur form salts known as thiogermanates. If excess of a mineral acid be added to a solution of an alkaline thiogermanate a white precipitate of germanium disulphide, GeS2, is obtained. It can also be obtained by passing sulphuretted hydrogen through a solution of the dioxide in hydrochloric acid. It is appreciably soluble in water, and also in solutions of the caustic alkalis and alkaline sulphides. By heating the disulphide in a current of hydrogen, germanious sulphide, GeS, is formed. ”

“ On examination of the metal and its salts it was shown to be identical with the hypothetical element ekasilicon, whose properties had been predicted by D. Mendeléeff many years previously. The element is of extremely rare occurrence, being met with only in argyrodite and, to a very small extent, in euxenite. ”