Chem. Obs. [ad. F. thorine, 1817, a bad representation of Berzelius’s name Thorjord, Ger. Thorerde: see THORIA.
In the Annales de Chemie, etc., 1817, V. 5, the form thorine is erroneously attributed to Berzelius himself (‘une nouvelle terre à laquelle M. Berzelius a donné le nome de thorine’). Misled by this, English chemists long used thorina and thorinum for thoria and thorium.]
1. The name given at first to a substance found by Berzelius in 1815 in various Swedish and Norwegian minerals, and named by him Thorjord, which afterwards proved to be yttrium phosphate.
1818. W. Phillips, Outl. Min. & Geol. (ed. 3), 29. The discovery of a new Earth by Berzelius a Swedish Chemist, has lately been announced…. This earth has been named … Thorina, from the Scandinavian deity Thor.
1826. Henry, Elem. Chem., II. 695. A farther investigation by Berzelius of the substance to which, in 1815, he had given the name of Thorina [ought to be Thorjord]…, has now satisfied him that it is merely a sub-phosphate of yttria.
2. The name formerly given to the earth or oxide to which Berzelius in 1828 transferred the name Thorjord, now called THORIA.
1831. T. P. Jones, Convers. Chem., xvii. 180. Thorina [is found] in one mineral only, in Norway.
1836. Brande, Chem. (ed. 4), 847. Thorina … after having been heated to redness, is white, and insoluble in the acids, with the exception of the sulphuric.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, etc., 1239. Pure thorina is a white powder, without taste, smell, or alkaline reaction on litmus.
1877. Watts, Fownes’ Chem. (ed. 12), 397. Thorinum Oxide or Thorina, ThO2.
