MOSANDER, CARL GUSTAF

born Sept. 10, 1797, Kalmar, Swed. died Oct. 15, 1858, Angsholmen Swedish chemist whose work revealed the existence of numerous rare-earth elements with closely similar chemical properties. In 1826 Mosander was placed in charge of the chemical laboratory of the Caroline Medical Institute, Stockholm, and in 1832 became professor of chemistry and mineralogy. While studying a compound of cerium, he discovered the element lanthanum in 1839. He pursued his investigations of the rare earths and in 1843 reported discovery of the elements erbium, terbium, and didymium. In 1885 the Austrian chemist Baron Carl Auer von Welsbach found that didymium was in reality a mixture of two elements: neodymium and praseodymium.