Treatise on Chemistry

following the principles of Sthall and Newton


§ - Antimony.

I_ Antimony is a mineral or half-metal which melts in fire, which is not ductile, which is found in needle-shaped earth; it is separated from the gangue by means of fusion; being purified in regula it resembles lead, and that is why it is called half-metal: we find it in Transylvania, in Hungary, in France, in Germany, the Merchants sometimes sell it in mineral, but that which we usually find it has been melted and purified: we must not believe that the one which is red is the best; the Alchemists believed it, because they believed that in this color it was closer to gold, it is sometimes reddish only because it happens to have more rarefied sulfur than the other, it is can see through experience.

II_ The Alchemists have named this mineral the red lion, the wolf, the root of metals, prothes, the sacred lead of the Philosophers, all these names come only from their chimerical ideas or from the phenomena that antimony presents in various operations, but let us leave these imaginations, and come to analysis.

III_ Minerals are bitumens cooked to a certain degree of fixity, they are composed of a sulfurous or oily principle, of a vitriolic acid, and of an earth capable of vitrifying and melting; Mercury, according to the Alchemists, is the base of all metals, but it is itself composed of the same principles, which shows that it is a body like them.

IV_ The basis of metallic substances is vitriscible earth which is found differently in different metals, and it is this which distinguishes them from one another; the salt is vitriolic, it is almost similar in all, the oil is the same as all oils, and binds the two other principles.

V_ Antimony is composed of two substances, one metallic, the other sulfurous; the sulfur it contains is a real burning sulfur, which is no different from that of matches, they can be separated by putting antimony in aqua regia, because it only dissolves the regulin or metallic part, without touching the sulfur which it leaves undissolved, we dry out the solution, and we sublime the sulfur.

VI_ The regulin substance of antimony is composed of an flammable principle, and besides that of a vitrifiable earth with a vitriolic acid which helps it to vitrify, we smell this acid by the sulphurous and vitriolic odor which is there. found as in pyrites, instead of in tin when we burn it, we find an odor of garlic, that is to say, an arsenical odor: for the melted regulin substance, it becomes vitrified, and this glass does not it is that the earthy part united with the salt and separated from its inflammable principle, which returned to this glass gives it back its metallic form on the field; and whether the oil which is used to resuscitate this metal is taken from the vegetable, or whether it is taken from animal substances, this remetallization is equally successful.

VII_ There are some who have claimed to make mercury with the regula of antimony, but it is very uncertain whether this happened by the various operations that were carried out on it; we can assure with more foundation that the regula has a lot of connection with the mercurial substance, because it quickly joins with the acid of common salt, but it attracts it a little more strongly, because it has a greater affinity with this acid as mercury: all metals are linked by sulfurs, but quick silver eludes the strength of this bond, although it nevertheless joins it quickly; it is the same with antimony in regula, it only retains it with a little more force: the relationship which is found between these two materials and the gold to which they are closely joined, further marks the resemblance which there a between their tissues; we can therefore assure that there is something mercurial in the regula, but this is not enough to say that there is truly mercury, and that we only have to separate it.

VIII_ It was believed that there was lead in antimony, but the ductibility which it lacks makes it clear that it is of a very different nature, lead has not been made from pure antimony: although we can say, if the caustic alkaline salts soften it a little, they have never done anything that could give some hope of making this mineral expand under the hammer.

IX_ For arsenic it could be proven more easily that antimony contains it, here is the proof: niter burned with phlogiston compounds which have no obvious acids, loses its penetrating odor, its color, its acrimony; but with arsenic its color, its acrimony, its volatility, its fetidity increase, the same thing happens with the repel of antimony, if we work the arsenic with lead, the glass takes on a color which is not strong different from that of antimony glass, and it happens to have emeticity, which is common to these two minerals,

X_ The Crud antimony is used in the sweat decorations, when you want to chase the moods through perspiration, but you have to take care that there is nothing acid in the decoction, because it would open and open and open and open and open and open and open and open and open would become emetic; it is dangerous when taken in large doses, because it can become emetic in the stomach.

Chartreux Gold Powder, or mineral Kermès.

Take four pounds of Hungarian antimony, or in its absence, the best you can find; grind it roughly, remove the fine dust which would stick to the bottom of the vessel which would cause it to break on the fire, it is enough that the antimony is in small pieces the size of a hazelnut, put this reduced antimony in small pieces into a glazed coffee pot of four or five quarts, pour into it four quarts of rain water and sixteen ounces of liquor of fixed nitre, boil the whole for two hours, or until the liquor has set a fairly dark red color; immerse a spoon in this boiling liquor and fill it with it, this liquor is clear at first, but it becomes cloudy as it cools, and at the end deposits some particles which are the sulfur of antimony; then decant the liqueur onto a funnel fitted with a filter, taking care to leave a third of the liqueur in the coffee maker, pour twelve ounces of nitre liqueur and four pints of boiling water over this third, decant and filter the liqueur. liquor, leaving a third still in the coffee pot as the first time, put back eight ounces of fixed niter liquor and four pints of boiling water, at this last time decant all the liquor on the filter; all these liquors being together, let them stand for eighteen or twenty hours, pour the liquor by inclination, take the precipitated sulfur and let it drain on the filter, pour hot water over it to desalinate it, and continue until until it is tasteless, leave the sulfur in the filter, hang it, and dry it; this done, spread it out, and drop it with a feather into a glazed terrine, pour four ounces of brandy over it, burn it, then let the sulfur dry out over very slow heat, burn it again in the water of life up to three times, and you will have the sulfur of antimony or mineral kermes.

Noticed.

This remedy was put into use by the Ligerie Surgeon in the Troops, but it only made noise in the hands of the Carthusian Fathers; it is not a new composition; Glauber had spoken about it; Abbé Rousseau was not unaware of it, as we see in his secrets, but it must be admitted that it is Mr. Lemery to whom we must attribute it, we cannot say that he had it taken from the Works of Glauber, this Chemist only spoke of it enigmatically, and does not follow the same process; moreover Mr. Lemery had undertaken to work antimony with all kinds of materials, his design must necessarily lead him to this preparation, Mr. his son gave a Memoir on this to the Royal Academy full of curious observations, he shows that his father perfectly detailed the preparation and use of this remedy, but I do not believe like him that the spirit of wine is useless, it is certain that the antimony on which the spirit is burned of wine is less emetic.

Antimony is composed of sulfur, as we have said, and of a metallic substance; the alkaline salts divide this sulfur, and give it the red color that the sulfurous parts take when they are well divided: there are still some parts of the regulin substance which divide with their sulfurs to which they unite; We therefore have in this operation these two substances very attenuated, and divided by an alkali.

This powder does not appear very different from the golden sulfur of antimony, because this golden sulfur is only a sulphurous portion separated from the regulin antimony, as we will explain elsewhere; nor is it very different from Russell's powder, which is made as follows: take the antimony, melt it in a crucible; while it is molten, throw it immediately into cold water, a coarse powder will fall to the bottom, and one will remain suspended in the water; decant the liquor to have the fine powder which is sudorific and very little emetic, whereas the kermes is quite considerably so: the fire does in this Russell powder what the fixed niter does on the kermes.

Kermes is emetic when it is found in the stomach of the sores which develop it, otherwise it is purgative; but if there is nothing in the intestines that must be purged, it passes into the blood: the phlogiston principle it contains becoming rarefied, it excites sweat, a grain sometimes makes you sweat abundantly; if it does not make you sweat, it excites insensible perspiration; it is given to purge the first passages; it is good in intermittent fevers, in chest diseases where the blood tends to coagulate; However, precautions must be taken when giving it: it once caused a terrible colic with pain in the testicles; I believe that a glass of oil would have been the remedy for this accident: it still sometimes happens that the kermes swells and heats the stomach, it is then necessary to drink a lot to dissolve and dilute the bile which swells, and to relax the parts .

The effect of kermes is not always certain, we have given up to nine grains in one day, without seeing any effect, but the next day there was copious evacuation through the stools, with a simple infusion of féné.

The dose of this preparation is two, three, four or five grains; after the first dose of three or four grains we can give a grain of three in three hours in currant jelly, because in liqueurs it falls to the bottom, and is not easy to take, we can also given to a grain in cases where the matters are not yet cooked, it is good in malignant diseases, because it incites and puts the sick in a condition to be successfully purged.

§ - Calcination of Antimony.

Calculate a pound of powdered antimony over a small fire in an unglazed terrine, stir the material constantly with an iron spatula until no more smoke comes out; If, however, the powder lumps up, as often happens, put it again in a mortar and pulverize it, calcine it again, as we have said; when it no longer smokes, and it takes on a gray color, you will have a powder or lime which is the regulin part stripped of the burning sulfur and the flammable principle, which means that it is not a regula.

Put this powder in a good crucible which you will cover with a tuilot, and place it in a wind furnace, in which you will make a very violent coal fire which surrounds the crucible; an hour later, having inserted a rod of iron inside, look when you have removed it, if the material which is attached to it is very transparent; if it is, throw it on a well-heated marble, it will coagulate, and you will have a beautiful glass of antimony which you will let cool, then you will keep it.

Remarks.

Antimony is composed, as we have said, of several substances; in this operation the sulfurous matter and the oil which form the metals are exhaled, there remains an ash or lime which does not melt easily, we can revive it, following the principles which we have established, if we continue the fire, the gray powder becomes brown, and tends to yellow, this yellowish color is a mark that the fire has removed the coarse sulfur and the oil: if we therefore come to melt this lime, we will not form one metal, but a glass which will be reddish, if it has some sulfur remaining, this is proven by mixing two parts of antimony lime and one part of sulfur, a red glass results from these two materials; but if the sulphurous material has been well burned, the glass is the color of hyacinth: four parts of borax to one part of antimony lime gives a crystalline glass which tends towards yellow.

If the antimony has been calcined too much, to melt it, you must throw a little raw antimony into it, this mixture will restore the phlogiston which is the principle of fusion: when the material is melted, a stylus is introduced into it. ; and if it is well disposed to vitrification, it will spin, if the antimony had not been sufficiently calcined, the net would find itself covered with a kind of regula, then we throw the material on the marble, we grind it when it is cooled, it is put back in the crucible as before: a large amount of borax on eight ounces of antimony which is not well calcined could still make the operation successful.

By the principles that we have established we see that if coal falls into the crucible, the antimony will revive; it would not be the same if common sulfur fell: it is only the fatty matter which gives the metallic form; there is a little oil in the sulfur, but it is bound and not abundant, the coal forms a regula of lime, and then the addition of common sulfur restores the crud antimony.

All the types of glass that we have spoken of are emetic, but if we reduce them to an impalpable powder, and burn wine spirits on them three or four times, the glass will no longer have so much emeticity. Mr. de Bellebat had put this emetic in vogue, he sometimes gave up to half a large amount in intermittent fevers at the beginning of attacks, this remedy caused little vomiting, it was diaphoretic: as the spirit of wine contains an oily principle, it can finally revive antimony lime: we can remove from antimony glass its emetic virtue, and make it purgative, all we need to do is give it an envelope which only dissolves in the stomach, This can be done by pouring a solution of mastic made in the spirit of wine onto the antimony glass, and then slowly allowing the humidity to evaporate; we can give ten to twelve grains.

Mr. Lemery says that it is surprising that antimony glass, which is more compact than other preparations, causes vomiting with more violence, but all this depends on the material which is emetic in the antimony, it must be know before saying that it is astonishing that glass produces such an effect; this would be justified, if it were necessary for a dissolution of a glass similar to the common one, but there are other materials in the antimony glass, it is given in substance from two grains up to six ; for emetic wine which is made by infusing the antimonial glass with the wine; it is given from two drachmas to one ounce.

§ - The Saffron of Metals.

Take equal parts of raw antimony and saltpeter, pulverize and mix them, put this mixture in an iron mortar, cover this mortar with a terrine pierced with a hole, introduce a lit charcoal through this hole, after the detonation, hit the sides with the tweezers, let the mortar cool, hit against the bottom to make the material fall, separate the slag with a hammer blow, pulverize the regulin part, sweeten it by washing it several times in water lukewarm, it is the saffron of metals.

Remarks.

The fatty matter ignites with the saltpeter, this inflammation consumes the sulfur of the antimony; there must therefore remain a regula which, being deprived of its sulfurs, will be a kind of glass; the nitre and the remaining bituminous material will join by their affinity, and will take up the upper part of the vessel, because the regula weighs much more.

Crocus metallorum serves as the basis for emetic tartar; it is also infused in wine, or in liqueurs which, through their essential salt, develop the principles of antimony; we can give the saffron of metals more or less emeticity, by adding more or less nitre: we have said that mineral acids reduce the emeticity of antimony; niter must produce this effect in this process.

We can make various crocuses, we have already given some procedure for this in the treatise on Iron, when the martial regula is in fusion and the slag becomes encrusted and hardens, we must throw in a little sulfur or black flux , this mixture will hold the slag in fusion; if we use the black flux, it will mix the antimonial parts with the slag, so we can revive them by adding charcoal, and by this addition a real crud antimony will be formed because of the sulfur that we used; moreover the mars which is in the slag of the martial regula, is very open, it can become a good saffron; when exposed to air, it changes into a spongy mass which swells; if this material is dissolved in water, Mars vitriol is formed.

Emetic tartar is more convenient than the saffron of metals, it is much more easily disguised; the expense of saffron can be greatly reduced, if we do it with an ounce of black flux on a pound of antimony, or six gross of saltpeter on a pound of antimony calcined alone and reduced to a very fine powder; we can easily see the reason for all this.

As mineral salts reduce the emeticity of antimony, we could make a saffron which caused vomiting less violently than that of which we have just spoken, by putting equal parts of antimony, niter and decrepit sea salt; This mixture results in a red-colored mass called antimony rubine.

We believed that we could always use the same crocus and the same glass to make emetic wine, but we were wrong: it is certain that after a certain number of infusions the wine has less than force, it should also be noted that the wine is only loaded with a certain quantity of antimony, so the dose of the emetic wine must be fixed by the quantity; the dose of this wine is from half an ounce to three, and that of the crocus in substance from two to eight grains.

§ - Diaphoretic antimony.

Take one part of antimony and three parts of refined saltpeter, pulverize them, and mix them, throw a spoonful into a reddened crucible between the coals; after the detonation, throw another spoonful in it until your mixture is all used, increase the heat for two or three hours, throw your material into a terrine filled with hot water, let it soak warmly in this water for for a day, decant the liqueur, wash the white powder that you will find at the bottom in lukewarm water, repeat the lotion until the powder is tasteless, dry what will remain, it is diaphoretic antimony.

Remarks.

Diaphoretic antimony is only a calcination of crud antimony or regula mixed with nitre: if we use crud antimony, we need three parts of niter to one part of antimony, and if the we use the regula, we need equal parts of nitre, because there is not as much sulfur to imbibe, the detonation is then very light.

The white powder is deprived of phlogiston, hence it resists fusion; if it is mixed with sulfur, it quickly takes care of it, the sulphurous vapors blacken it, and the flammable principle of the coals remetalizes it, this is why during the operation we must take care that it does not fall of charcoal in the crucible, otherwise instead of the mineral diaphoretic we would have an emetic; This powder, moreover, is not an absorbent earth, it does not ferment with acids like chalk.

Evaporated lotions produce a burning nitrous salt; if the operation was carried out with crud antimony, this salt is a species of polycrest salt, it is composed of the earth of fixed nitre, and the vitriolic acids of sulfur; if the niter were too abundant, we would have some nitrous crystals, this nitre differs from polycrest salt in that it contains some antimonial parts, because if we pour vinegar on the laundry, a white powder precipitates which is not than a portion of diaphoretic antimony.

Antimony is not emetic in itself; it can be taken in raw substance without vomiting; but when it is stripped of its sulfurs, it is a powerful emetic: there is still dispute about the material which is emetic in antimony: some said that it was sulfur, but they gave no proof, Elsewhere, raw antimony, following this idea, should be more emetic than calcined antimony; others attributed emeticity to antimonial salt: but what is this salt? Is this the vitriolic salt we talked about? It does not appear that it can be the cause of the irritation of the fibers of the stomach; experiments do not support this feeling. For the salt which can enter into the composition of antimony, and which apparently contributes to forming glass, we cannot say that it is emetic, since we cannot develop it, make it appear in the form of salt: following all these difficulties it seems that only the right proportion of salt and sulfur remains, however by mixing sulfur and salt we never make an emetic, we must therefore resort to some other cause; if there is anything probable, it is that arsenical matter is the source of the emeticity of antimony; What I said about lead glass mixed with arsenic confirms this idea: but what is the material that is emetic in arsenic? this is what we cannot determine; we can only say that it must be a body which rises to the orifice of the stomach, and which by tingling the nerves which surround it, causes the muscles of the abdomen and the diaphragm to enter into convulsion . According to the experience of the famous Mr. Chirac, the ventricle has no movement when one vomits, it only obeys the pressure of the muscles between which it is located; several famous anatomists confirmed in Paris what this great physician put forward.

In this operation the antimony changes its nature, since it becomes diaphoretic; it does not lose its emeticity, because it is stripped of its sulfur, as has been argued; it is only the mixture of niter which produces this effect. No matter how much antimony could be calcined to remove its sulfur, it would still cause vomiting; for its diaphoretic virtue it is very light; for her to notice it, you have to give twenty-four grains: this preparation can become emetic, if you pour sirrup of silt, or some other vegetable acid; it still becomes purgative if the doses are repeated every six hours. The great fondant of Paracelsus is only the unwashed diaphoretic powder, this remedy is excellent for removing obstructions, it is given from sixteen grains, we then increase this dose to sixty grains little by little.

This preparation can be made with martial repel, but it will be less white because of the iron mixture; cornachine powder is a mixture of diaphoretic antimony, diagrede and cream of tartar in equal parts, it is Tribus powder which purges very well, it still bears the name of Count of Warvick powder.

If we put the refined saltpeter and the antimony in a pot topped with three aludels and a small container, we will sublimate a diaphoretic antimony by throwing the mixture by the spoonful into the reddened pot, and by raising the fire for a fifteen minutes ; in the end as the acid of sulfur is stronger than the nitrous acid, it will join with the earth of the nitre, and the nitrous acid will rise, thus we will have a little spirit of nitre, we will still have a fixed saltpeter; since it was calcined with sulfur, 1/20 of the material is lost in this operation, it goes away in smoke through the hole in the pot we are using, but diaphoretic antimony weighs more than antimony which we used, this comes partly from the mixing of the niter and partly from the calcination which brings the parts together; the fire of the burning mirror which increases the antimony which it calcines, is a proof that the increases in weight do not come entirely from new added matter.

The dose of diaphoretic antimony is from six grains to thirty.

§ - Antimony Regulate.

Antimony regulus is the metallic substance separated from sulfur.

Take twelve ounces of antimony, twelve ounces of tartar crud, and six ounces of refined saltpeter, put them into powder; mix everything exactly, make a large crucible red between the coals, throw a spoonful of this mixture into it, and put a lid on it, there will be a detonation, after which you will continue to put spoonfuls of your material into the crucible until everything is used, then push the fire around the crucible; and when the material is molten, pour it into a mortar or an iron base greased with tallow and heated, strike the sides of said base or mortar, and the repel will precipitate to the bottom; when it is cold you will separate it from the slag that is on it; having powdered it, melt it again in another crucible, throw in a little saltpeter; a small flame will rise, which having passed, pour your material onto a very clean and greased iron mortar, let it cool, you will have four and a half ounces of repel.

Remarks.

Antimony, as we have said, is a metallic, arsenical, sulphurous material: the sulfur is joined to the metal quite weakly; the matter which contains arsenic has more connection with it, however one can hardly separate one without the other. When we want to purify the metal by means of fire, the very phlogiston which gives metals their form flies away, and leaves only glass in place of the metallic substance. Nitre produces the same effect, by deflagration it removes the inflammable material: the fixed alkali salt which takes care of the raw sulfur dividing it, also divides the regulin material, the common salt or acts in the same way as the fixed alkali salt, or alters so little antimony that it does not separate the sulfur from the regula; we see from this that it is necessary to have recourse to some other material or to some other process to separate the sulfur, without touching the inflammable and metallic material: imperfect metals, such as lead, tin, copper, are very clean for this; but first let us see what we should think of ordinary processes.

In the common operation that I have proposed we can hardly draw more than a regula which only amounts to the fourth part of the antimony that we used, however there is at least half of this mineral which is metallic; we find a lot of slag which are only the salts which we used combined with what was separated from the antimony; in this mass there is a brown and yellowish powder which has emeticity; besides this there is a large quantity which after the leaching of the slag appears red and blackish, and which takes on a lumpy consistency, it is called the impure sulfur of antimony, the rest of the lye precipitated by some acid gives the golden sulfur, the first powder is nothing other than the divided repel,

Some make the regula by calcining the antimony with the charcoal, after which they melt the mass which becomes a regula because the charcoal, when burning, replenishes the oily or phlogiston principle which we have called the principle of inflammation; according to Mr. Sthall, this process gives much more trouble than profit.

Zuelfer makes the regula with the colophone, the resin, the turpentine which makes it burn together. This way is not to be despised, but it costs too much.

We still take antimony lime which is only vitricible earth stripped of its burning sulfur, we mix charcoal with this lime, we put a little saltpeter in it to begin to melt the mass, the oily parts revive the earth , and a regula is formed and not an antimony, because for this it must give up its mineral sulfur; this way we have more regulation than with the ordinary method.

If we take the earth which was used to make the emetic tartar, and we melt it with the saltpeter, it will come back into repel, because the saltpeter develops the oily parts of the sulfur remaining in this earth.

We have said that we only draw a quarter of a repel by the process that we have described, here is the reason: the tartar and the saltpeter joined together form an alkali salt which absorbs the coarse sulfur of the antimony with which it makes a kind of hepar which carries repel with it, because it is composed of a bituminous and alkaline part; through the bituminous part it remains attached to the regulin part, and through its alkaline part it remains united with the salts, the regula which could not be removed remains at the bottom; if it loses something of its oily part, the alkali salt replenishes it.

The salt of tartar melted with antimony does not give any regula, because it acts on the regulin part and on the fatty part from which it is stripped, antimony does not have enough sulfur to prevent the action of the salt of tartar on the principle of flammability.

If we put equal parts of saltpeter with antimony, the saltpeter suddenly melts, and makes antimonial hepar, the regulin part remains very divided and extended in the part of the saltpeter which is alkalized with the oily and sulphurous part of antimony, nitre acid and sulfur escaped; if we put three parts of saltpeter against one part of antimony, the saltpeter removes both the oil and the coarse sulfur, it leaves only the antimony lime which is fixed because it is joined with a kind of salt polycrest which occupies all its pores so well; that it can only be melted with difficulty, it cannot be vitrified without addition.

There are Artists who detonate the saltpeter and the tartar together to make a black flow which they project onto the molten antimony, I strongly approve of this method which can prevent the deflagration of the saltpeter and the tartar together with the antimony, does not remove anything from the metallic substance.

We noted in our process that it was necessary to put equal parts of saltpeter and tartar, but it may be that in this way the tartar does not retain enough oil to remetallize the lime, I think it would be better to put a one part saltpeter for two parts tartar, it seems that more repel will come.

I referred to talking about metals after the common operations, it is certain that there are some which have more affinity with the coarse sulfur of antimony than the regulin part itself, such as iron, copper, lead, silver; depending on whether these metals can imbibe a small or large quantity of sulfur, we add more or less: for example, iron can take on double the sulfur that antimony contains in equal parts, which is why by making the regulator with iron we have to settle on that; for the other metals here is the proportion, you need equal parts of antimony and copper, three parts of lead to one of antimony, equal parts of silver and antimony: these regula made with metals are called metallic; the one we gave in our process is called simple regula.

There appears a star on the regulus, and the alchemists have made much of it, they find there mysteries which contain nothing less than the golden fleece, they have compared this star to that of the Magi: as this one announced to these men happy the arrival of the Savior of the world, this antimonial star is for the Alchemists a star which leads them to the cradle of the Philosophical King, they name this regulative matter, that is to say, Little King, but the Physical Chemists do not see nothing but very simple in this star; because antimony being in fusion, all its parts are in movement, this movement is greater in the center than at the circumference: it is therefore necessary that the antimonial parts be pushed from the center towards the circumference, from where the walls must again push them back towards the center from which they come; it is easy to conceive that in this kind of movement the parts of the regula which are small needles, must be arranged in such a way that they go from the center to the circumference, that is to say, that their points face each other. each other; Moreover, this star is not only on the surface, it is found throughout the entire extent of the regula from the base of the cone to the tip.

This star does not always appear; the operation done well or poorly makes it appear or confuses it; To succeed, here are the circumstances that must be observed: the first, that the regula be made of cast iron, so that the parts can move freely; the second, that there be enough slag to cover the regulator, and to prevent the air from cooling it too quickly; the third, that the slag be in good fusion, otherwise they form depressions and inequalities on the surface of the regula, and prevent the movement of the regulin parts; the fourth, that at the end we set a fire immediately in the center of the vessel where we make the regula; the fifth, throw a little sulfur on the molten material, with these precautions you will have a brilliant and perfectly well formed star; Moreover, this star has no other use than to mark that the regula is perfectly pure.

We make bullets from the regula of antimony, and we call them perpetual pills which we sometimes use in misery; Mr. Lemery claims that the weight of these pills as they pass through the intestines decreases, but we can assure that this reduction is not noticeable; These pills, moreover, are not safe; when there are parts in the intestines which have entered into each other, or when there is some great obstacle there, they can cause inflammation.

§ - The Martial Regulate.

The Martial Regulate is the metallic part of the antimony separated with the mars.

Take a large crucible, put eight ounces of small clouds in it, cover your crucible which you will place in a grate furnace, you will give it a large fire above and below, throw a pound of antimony into it when the iron is well reddened , put the lid back on the crucible, and continue a violent fire; the antimony being melted, gradually throw in three ounces of saltpeter, there will be a detonation, and the clouds will start to melt: when your material no longer sparks, throw it into an iron crucible heated and coated with suet, hit the sides with the tweezers, so that the regula separates better; after that you will separate the slag with a hammer blow when everything has cooled, melt this regula again, and put two ounces of pulverized antimony on it, put three ounces of niter little by little when everything is in fusion; when the saltpeter is burned, and you no longer see sparks coming out, take a heated and greased iron horn, pour your material into it, strike around it, as in front, and the whole being cooled, separate the repel from the slag, as we marked it; repeat the fusion of the regulus twice, and throw saltpeter into it each time and especially the last time, so that the star appears good.

Remarks.

There are two kinds of regula, the simple regula and the metallic regula: the simple regula is the one where no part of the metals used remains; the metal regula is the one that retains part of the metal with which it is made.

The repel called martial is well made if there is no iron left in it, here is how it is purified. After the antimony and the mars have been melted for the first time, the slag is thick and separates with difficulty: as the regula must be melted again, we should not worry much about it, however if the If we want to prevent these slags from sticking so strongly, throw into the molten material some potion of alkali salt, gravelled ashes, fixed nitre, or some other similar material; the whole having been cooled, the slag will separate without difficulty: after the regula has been thus prepared, it can still retain some parts of the mars, because when the molten material is thrown into a crucible, there is always some martial part which falling on the bottom or on the sides is reflected on one side and the other, and the material cools before these particles can rise towards the slag, hence this yellowish color that we sometimes see in this regula; to purify it well, all you have to do is melt it with the fourth part of antimony crud over a slow fire, you will then have a better purified regula than before; However, there remains an arsenical material which makes it friable, and, so to speak, bristling; To banish this matter, you only have to melt it and throw in a drachma of nitre; as soon as the detonation is made, you will throw as many into it, you will continue like this until six drachmas, the slag which then appears is dry and not very meltable, we only have to bring them close to the regulus by stirring them with a iron stick, and they will melt, you can repeat this three times, and you will have a beautiful repel.

Iron has much more affinity with the sulfur of antimony than antimony itself, so it takes care of the antimonial sulfur; and as the martial parts united with the sulfur form a whole less heavy than the regula of antimony, they take up the upper part of the crucible while the parts of the regula fall to the bottom.

In the regula made with copper, the copper blades being firmer than those of antimony, they cool rather; these copper blades are taken first as they are, while the rest of the regula is made of cast iron; this remainder of the regula then cools, decreases and lowers; the parts of the copper then being higher on the surface, form a more or less regular figure depending on chance,

The slag of the repel is nothing other than mars and sulphurous matter which are united in a brittle and friable mass; if these slags are exposed to the air, they crack, flower and finally give a beautiful vitriol, because the acid of the sulfur becomes rarefied and joins with the alkaline earth of mars, becomes vitriol.

The slag in this operation must float half a finger width, and flow for some time; when they are completely white, it is a mark that the antimony regula is exactly separated from the mars, the presence of which is still manifested when approaching the magnetic knife, the slag in this regula leaves a star which has much finer needles than with saltpeter and tartar, this comes from the fact that mars by its sulfur subtilizes and attenuates the matter.

You can take a pound of clouds or iron filings, make a crucible red, and when it is very red put the clouds in it; when the iron is white, we only have to throw two and a half pounds of antimony into it, this will save the trouble of adding new antimony to the second fusion of the regula: which we then examine with a net if the material is in perfect fusion; if it is perfectly melted, if four ounces of niter are thrown in by half ounces, the regula will be perfectly starry from the second time.

This regula is of the same use as the first, it has the same virtues; we use the regula of martial antimony rather than the others, to make cups or goblets: we believe that it is less sour, because iron has been mixed with it; but if the regula is properly purified, this reason will not be able to survive.

§ - Golden sulfur of Antimony.

It is the sulfurous part of the slag precipitated by an acid.

Boil the slag of the first regula in common water for half an hour, you will pour the liquor, and on the colature you will throw vinegar, you will have a red material which will precipitate, you will dry it and you will keep it, it This is called golden antimony sulfur.

Remarks.

The slag which comes out of the antimony regula is a mineral sulfur, burning, attenuated, subtilized, mixed with alkalis which are formed by the calcination and by the detonation of the saltpeter with the tartar; this fixed alkali salt drinks the sulfur, attenuates it and divides it, this makes a red sulfur which is a real hepar sulphuris; we can separate this sulfur which, being red and dark, is called golden sulfur.

We can boil the slag, as we have noted, but we can also let it dissolve in the cellar into a fatty liquor, red the color of dark saffron, and we filter the solution; as far as the fixed red powder which is deposited is concerned, it is the same thing as that of kermes, because the saltpeter detonated and fixed with the tartar is the same thing as the niter fixed by the coals, it resolves into oil at the cellar, it also expands and rarefies the antimonial sulfur.

To then separate the sulfur supported in the water by the alkali salt, an acid is poured into it; as the acids have more affinity with the alkaline salts than with the sulfurs, they join with these alkaline salts which then allow the sulfurs to escape.

There are regulin parts suspended with the sulfurs, because if we take the slag, we can revive the regula which is contained there; there are therefore some who rush with golden sulfur, otherwise it would not differ from common sulfur; we can see in what we have said elsewhere how much sulfur remains in the slag.

After the mixture of the vinegar and the dissolution of the slag, there comes an unpleasant odor, and the precipitating sulfur also strikes the sense of smell unpleasantly; it is washed several times in lukewarm water to remove its fetidity, however it still retains its odor, and it is emetic.

The acid of wine, vinegar, silt, increases the emeticity of antimony, whereas that of the minerals stops the emetic virtue, thus if we pour the spirit of vitriol spread in a lot of water on the dissolution of sulfur made with alkali, tartar and nitre, a sulfur will precipitate which will be sudorific, because the regulin parts will be fixed.

If we pour new distilled vinegar onto the liquor which has deposited the sulfur, it will still precipitate new one which will be more subtle and less emetic, we could also remove golden sulfur from the slag of the second regula, it would have the same virtues , but it would not be necessary to use so much water, because less sulfur remained in these last operations; These slags, moreover, do not form coagulum like the others when they are boiled, this only comes from the quantity of sulfur which is different in the two cases.

There is no appearance that the golden sulfur of antimony of which the Ancients speak to us is the same as ours, because they gave it a diaphoretic virtue, and ours is vomitive; moreover we find in their writings that antimony contained a superficial, coarse sulfur, similar to common sulfur which is precisely the one that comes to us in this preparation; they said that there was another fixed one which was the solar and orific sulfur to which they attributed the virtue of making one sweat.

Golden sulfur is given from one grain to six in broth or in pills; when it is given in wine, it regains the fetidity which had been partially removed from it by the lotion.

§ - Tincture of Antimony.

This preparation is an extraction of some parts of the antimony slag.

Take the slag from the repel made with tartar and saltpeter, reduce this slag to powder, throw it into a matras, pour wine spirit over it with the tip of three fingers, put the matter to digest, The spirit of wine will take care of the tincture, decant it after that; and if you do not find it tinted enough, evaporate it to a third, this is the tincture of antimony.

Remarks.

We can obtain a tincture from antimony, repel, glass, slag, but the menstrua are different, for this we use vinegar, the spirit of vinegar concentrated with copper, and which we call acetum radicum, wine spirit, cochlearia spirit, Glaubert's alkaest, oak vinegar.

After the first melting of the regula the sulfur is opened, exalted, attenuated, suitable for being communicated to some liquor, like the spirit of wine which otherwise would not act on the antimony. If we want to have a good tincture, this spirit of wine must not be well rectified, because the alkaline salts are attached to the sulfurs, and if we want to release them we need phlegm which dissolves them, then they will fall at the bottom while the spirit of wine will remain responsible for the tincture; hence it follows that the spirit of wine is exactly dephlegmed, because the phlegm attaches itself to the alkali salt, and never leaves it.

Mr. Homberg took transparent antimony glass, he crushed it and put it in a matra, pouring distilled vinegar over it, he set fire underneath, so that the material was always burning, the vinegar took on an orange tint, he decanted this vinegar, and added more which he decanted again when it was sufficiently colored; he repeated this until the vinegar no longer colored, then he melted this glass which became less transparent, he crushed it, and again extracted the tincture from it with the vinegar as before; he melted this glass for the third time, and thereby made it more opaque, he still extracted the dye from it until this vinegar no longer colored; he evaporated all this dyed vinegar down to half, and what remained was his emetic tincture.

When we carry out our operation we must block the matras with parchment which we pierce with a pin, lest the vessel break; this tincture is given from six to twenty drops, it is a good diaphoretic which rarely causes vomiting, because the regulin parts which may still be there are too attenuated and divided, or they are embarrassed by the sulfurs, and besides that the spirit of wine is too subtle to sustain much.

§ - Bibal powder.

This preparation is a calcination of the regula with saltpeter and tartar.

Take a pound and a half of the least brilliant martial regula and the most charged with iron, melt it, and while it melts make a mixture of three pounds of tartar with two pounds of saltpeter from the first fired, and two pounds of the second cooking; after that throw a spoonful on the melted regula, it will make a detonation, stir everything so that the mixture penetrates the regula and melts it; once the detonation has passed, take with a spoon the foamy saline material which will be found on the regulus, throw this saline material thus removed into a vessel where you will have put the brandy, first cover this vessel afterward lest the the water of life catches fire, and turn away your face; then put a new spoonful of salt on the regula, and after the detonation remove the material which is on the regula, and throw it, as before, into the brandy; continue in this way until all the regula is washed away, or until your salt is all used, leave everything to digest in covered terrines for fifteen days, so that the dough is nourished in the brandy, after that lock your material in pots lest it dry out.

Remarks.

This powder is the invention of a chemist named Bibal, he was very popular with this remedy; it made so much noise in the Provinces that an express was sent from Paris to see what it was. This preparation is good, but what it has more than the others is not so extraordinary that it deserves the noise it has made; we see this by the Operation where tartar and saltpeter form a species of alkali salt which is charged with some oily and regulin parts of the antimony; it is a species of unwashed mineral diaphoretic; it is a little emetic due to the antimonial parts it contains; the dose is twelve to fifteen grains for delicate people, and twenty for others.

§ - Antimony Butter.

Take equal parts of antimony and corrosive sublimate, grind them in a glass mortar, half fill a glass retort with a wide neck, place this vessel in a furnace on the sand, fit a container to it fight the joints, give a light fire at the beginning, a clear oil will come out, then push the fire to the second degree, the neck of the retort will be charged with a white oil; bring a lighted coal close to this oil, so that it does not thicken: continue until a red material appears; change the container and fight the joints; increase the heat for four hours, so that the retort turns red; let your materials cool, and then break the retort, you will find sublimated cinnabar at the neck.

Remarks.

The first thing we observe in this operation is to grind the materials together, so that the mixture is made more precisely: we use a glass mortar, because if we used a metal vessel, it would form a kind of butter by the corrosion that the sublimate would make: a powder arises during the crushing, it is very harmful, because it causes vomiting, salivation, swelling and languor which only ends with life.
The second precaution that we take is to use a retort whose opening is wide, often the butter which rises impetuously blocks the passage, and causes the vessel to shatter, the corrosive sublimate spreads in at the same time in the air, and insinuates itself into the lungs where it produces fatal peripneumonia or sudden death.

The acid of sea salt is joined with mercury in the sublimate, but as it has more relationship with antimony, it attaches to it and abandons mercury: this compound acquires more surface area than mercury, so it must rather rise; the parts of the antimony having only a certain attraction, must only be charged with a certain quantity of acid, so it would be useless to put a lot of sublimate with a little antimony.

Antimony butter is a violent caustic, we have noted the reason elsewhere: we see by this operation that the antimonial parts which are fixed, volatilize by the junction of the acid of the sea salt; this compound that these two materials form, rises almost as easily as the spirit of wine in the retorte, it is not only the antimony which can be volatilized by this method, the gold which is fixed can become volatile from the same way.

Cinnabar is only mercury joined to sulfur: in this operation antimonial sulfur which is the same as common sulfur, attaches itself to the mercurial parts, thus it must result in a cinnabar which can be decomposed by mixing it in a retort with double the salt of tartar, then if a big fire is given, the sulfur attaches to the salt, and the mercury escapes; if we then want to separate the salt from the sulfur, we only have to boil everything in water, and pour distilled vinegar into it, a gray matter will precipitate which is the sulfur of antimony.

The butter that comes out before the cinnabar is more frozen than that which is made with the repel alone, this comes from the mixture of some sulfurous parts; if the sulfur had risen with the butter in too large a quantity because of the violence of the fire, the mass would be brown, it would then be necessary to put it back in a retorte, and distill it over a low heat, a black substance remains at the bottom from which a regula can be removed by fusion with saltpeter and tartar.

There are some who wanted to rectify the antimonial cinnabar by having it sublimated, but it does not change color or properties by sublimation, butter can suffer more change by rectification; if we heat it, melt it, and then gently distill it in a retort over a sand fire, it will volatilize more, and produce more rapid effects.

We must ban butter from the use of medicine; some have given it in a little broth to induce vomiting, but it is too dangerous an emetic: for cinnabar it has no more virtues than common cinnabar, the dose is from six grains to twelve, it is given in pill or bolus.

§ - Algaroth Powder or Mercury of Life.

Take whatever quantity of antimony butter you want, melt it as you approach the fire, pour it into a large quantity of lukewarm water, a white powder will precipitate which must be sweetened by various lotions, it This is Algatoth powder.

Remarks.

The marine acid which is joined with the antimony, detaches from it and joins with the water, then the antimonial parts separated from the saline corpuscles which supported them and gave them more surface, precipitate, and form a strong powder fixed of birds that they were before; they change into very pure regula if they are melted.

We see from what I have just said that water alone is sometimes enough to fix a very volatile body, here it removes the salt, and thereby it becomes acidic; Mr. Boile calls this water dry spirit of vitriol, but I do not know why; it does not contain anything approaching vitriol, it is only a true spirit of salt which is a marvelous menstruum, this is where the name menstruuum peracutum comes from; it has some mercury, because it whitens gold; and if we throw in an alkali salt like tartar, a sea salt is formed.

We have said that antimony loses its emeticity through the mixture of mineral acids; from this it follows that if we did not sweeten the algaroth powder, it would almost not vomit, but when it is discharged it is a powerful emetic; it has been considered as a specific for epilepsy , but we must only recommend such a violent remedy with great caution.

This powder is given from two grains to eight in broth or in some suitable liquor.

§ - Mineral besoard.

Take some antimony butter, pour in spirit of nitre drop by drop until the matter is dissolved, evaporate the moisture over a sand fire in a glass cucurbit until 'there remains a dry manner; when the vessel is cooled, throw on this remaining matter new spirit of nitre, do the evaporation as before, and continue thus up to three times, then put your matter in a crucible, and calcine it for half an hour at a violent fire, it is Basile Valentin's mineral besoard.

Remarks.

Algaroth powder dissolved with the spirit of salt and with the spirit of nitre, gives a mineral besard; if we make the humidity evaporate, what happens without the Operation that we have just described, is the same thing; the spirit of sea salt is incorporated into the antimony, the spirit of nitre is added, and then an aqua regia is made which dissolves the regulin parts, the humidity is then evaporated, and there the acids partly abandon the antimony; there will therefore remain a metallic material which is calcined, and therefore, although it was corrosive, it will not be emetic, but it will approach diaphoretic antimony; because the salts become alkalized by the action of fire; we can see the affinity of these two compositions by the operations: as regards emeticity, we see that the mineral acid must remove it, we can make the mineral besoard, as we said, with the powder of 'Algaroth, because this powder is an antimony separated from marine acid; we therefore only have to dissolve it, evaporate the humidity, and calcine what remains.

Basil Valentinus gave us this composition: Sylvius, on the testimony of this great Chemist, introduced it into Medicine; he believed with other doctors that she must have great virtues to resist the venom, since having been part of one of the great poisons, she had retained nothing of it, that's where it came from the name of bésoard.

The dose is from six grains up to twenty.

§ - Antimonial panacea.

Take two parts of crystal of tartar reduced to powder, add one part of antimony, boil it all in a matra in which you have put four or five times as much hot water, stopper the matra, boil the materials for sis or seven o'clock, then pour in as much tartar oil as you put crystal; after the effervescence filter the liquor, evaporate the humidity until dryness, what you will be left with is the panacea of ​​antimony, it will be necessary to expose it to humid air so that it resolves into liquor.

Remarks.

To understand what happens in this operation, we must pay attention to the butter which is composed of antimony and the acid of sea salt, to the crystal of tartar and to the tartar alkali salt: we will see according to the laws of attraction or from the affinity that the acids must insinuate into the tartar oil: and after this union from which effervescence results, an emetic tartar will form; but there is some difference between the panacea and the tartar emetic, for the butter has a marine acid salt and some remnant of mercury which may be attached to the antimony.

An effervescence occurs when the tartar oil is poured onto the butter and the crystal, the marine acid must leave the butter and join the fixed alkali salt, the acid which is in the crystal can attach also partly to alkali; but as it is embarrassed among the oily filaments of the tartar, the marine acid must have more strength.

It is necessary to make some observations on the mixture of oil and tartar, and on this effervescence.

1°_ The oil requires hot water to be used, otherwise it would not release the acids.
2°_ The excitement could cause the vessel to burst, so the materials must have space to become rare.
3°_ The materials must be stirred during evaporation, so that the oily substance does not attach to the bottom of the vessel.
4°_ When we expose the material to a humid place after evaporation, it must not resolve completely into liquor, because there is an oily and antimonial portion which does not moisten like salts, so it must precipitate in magisterium.

The dose is from eight to twenty drops in some suitable liquor.

§ - Antimony Oil.

Take equal parts of candy sugar and antimony, mix them after having formed a powder, fill a quarter of it with a glass retort, place your vessel on the streetlight, fit a container to it, give a fire light at the beginning, then push it until no more vapors come, let the vessels cool, pour into a matra what will be in the container, put in tartarified wine spirit until with the eminence of four fingers, leave it to digest in a steam bath for four days, filter the liquor cold, put it in a cucurbit which you will place in a bain-marie, remove the wine spirit , keep this oil or butter in a jar.

Remarks.

The name oil has been given to various preparations of antimony: we take, for example, spirit of salt and oil of vitriol in equal parts, we add as much pulverized antimony, we leave the materials in digestion for two days on the sand, we then give a fire which we push to the second degree, and we have a white liquor; this preparation is entirely useless, since it is only an antimony butter which only differs in relation to its acid from that which we have described.

We see that the composition that we have just given is nothing other than the antimonial parts combined with the oily acid of sugar and the spirit of wine, it is an excellent remedy for recent wounds and for ulcers: Mr. Le Fèvre says that it can be used successfully in the cure of fevers; for this we take an ounce of aloe purified with the juice of blessed charcoal and reduced to an extract, two drachmas of ambergris, a dram of saffron tincture evaporated to the consistency of syrup, mix it all with an ounce of antimony balm; the dose is from four grains to sixteen in some can.

The Hermetic Philosophers spoke of a philosophical oil of antimony of which they made much of: Popius gave the description; but Jean Agricola, of whom I spoke, says that it cannot be done in the manner in which this Author proposes it, finally he gives a method by which one can prepare a quintessence of antimony which is of infinite price: if what he reports is true, it acts through sweat; and far from weakening, like ordinary sudorifics, it gives new strength; this chemist says that he saw the miraculous effects in fever four, in venereal diseases and in other ailments: here is the process he followed.

Take corrosive sublimate and antimony, half a pound of each, grind them and mix them, leave them in a flat glass vessel for twenty-four hours, put them in a retort, give a low heat, it will make a white butter, increase the heat until it is raised, you will have a beautiful cinnabar which you will pulverize and which you will mix with the butter, distill everything, you will have a beautiful yellow oil which must be rectified several times Once, put water on this oil, decant it, distill it in a bain-marie, there will remain at the bottom a yellow spirit which is an excellent menstruum which you will use for the following operation.

Take two pounds of Hungarian antimony mine, pulverize it very subtly, put it in a cucurbit, pour in the yellow spirit of which we have given the preparation up to the eminence of three fingers, digest all slowly for ten or twelve days, decant the liquor, pour in new spirit until it no longer takes on color; distill your impregnations until you are left with a material with the consistency of honey, pour wine spirit over this mass, let the material digest until the spirit is colored, decant the liquor, pour - do it again until all you have left is black faeces, distill your impregnations in the bath until you have a beautiful oil left, pour some wine spirit into it, let it digest all for a month in the steam bath, put it in a retorte lutee, and gently remove the spirit by distillation, then adapt another container, turn on the heat, and you will have an oil red as blood; take the caput mortuum that you have removed by all the distillations, put it in a pot well-lit over a streetlight until the material is a brownish red, pour in distilled vinegar; when it is colored yellow, decant it, and pour more until it no longer colours, mix your impregnations, and remove the vinegar by distillation in the bath, you will find at the bottom of the still a salt mass, pour distilled rainwater into it; after the mass is dissolved, filter the liquor, evaporate the water up to the fourth part; put what remains in a cool place, white crystals will form, reflect them gently, pour rainwater over them, the crystals dissolving will leave faeces which will precipitate, filter the liquor and crystallize it, continue in the same way until you see no more faeces, put these crystals in a flask, pour the red oil into it when the faeces will precipitate, put your material in a retorte and distill it; if everything does not rise, throw on what remains what the distillation gives you, and give a strong fire, only a little spongy faeces must remain; put your liquor in a flask, stopper it well, and coagulate your material by degrees, you will finally have a red powder which is the quintessence of antimony of which Agricola gave a drachma with various mixtures.

This is a process which is a bit long, the Author himself says that it is not as easy as it first appears, he requires an experienced Artist who knows the art of setting fire; the length of the work, according to this Chymist, should not be daunting; one is abundantly rewarded for one's labors by the marvelous remedy they produce; I do not know if this process succeeds, as it marks: all that could be said in general is that it is sincere, but Alchemy often makes the strongest minds visionary, we must not let ourselves be dazzle by the promises found in the books that deal with transmutation and universal remedies.

§ - Antimony Flowers.

Take three parts of antimony and two of flowers of ammonia salt, throw these materials into a cucurbit, place this vessel in a furnace, block the gap which is between the walls of the furnace and the vessel, adapt a capital to the cucurbit with a small container, fight the joints, give a small fire, a liquor will come out, and flowers will attach to the capital, continue the fire until the flowers change color a little, remove the capital, put - in a blind place, fight the joints, push the fire, you will have variously colored flowers which must be sweetened in lukewarm water.

Remarks.

Antimony volatilizes with ammonia salt, all these flowers have the same properties, although they have different colors, we use various processes to sublimate them, we can use ammonia salt in substance with antimony, then the materials being heated, some marine acid must separate, which will join with the antimony, while the urine alkali salt will rise. There are Artists who use antimony dissolved in aqua regia and dried over a slow fire, then we find feces where there is a lot of sea salt, flowers prepared with triple nitre as well as the mineral diaphoretic, lose their emeticity, and grow through sweating, Van Helmont calls this preparation the fixed flowers of antimony, he gives it great praise in a Treatise written in Flemish, and says that it chases away all kinds of diseases by the sweat ; but skilful doctors who wanted to see if the experience responded to all these beautiful promises, did not notice any great effects of this remedy: this diaphoretic powder stripped of the niter by lotions, if it is mixed with 1/2 of scammnonea resin and 1/6 of cream of tartar, gives a purgative which bears the name of Diaceltateson, Van Helmont and Paracelsus; the dose is from sixteen grains to thirty. According to the experience of a famous doctor, it is an excellent remedy for intermittent fevers; this preparation does not differ much from cornachine powder, in one the ordinary diaphoretic is used, and in the other the Van Helmont diaphoretic.

We have in this operation that we have described, 1° a liquor which contains a volatile spirit of salt ammonia; if acids are poured into it, fermentation takes place, but the same thing does not happen to the salt which is removed by lotions from the flowers. 2° It comes from red flowers which owe their color to the rarefaction of sulfur. 3° Variously colored flowers come, we put them in a glass cucurbit to which we adapt a blind capital, we fight the joints, we place the vessel on the sand, we give a fairly strong fire which we gradually increase to little, we continue until flowers that are not yellow appear, we let the vessels cool, we separate the flowers, and we wash them in lukewarm water, they have the same properties as the first.

We make antimony flowers without addition, we take a pot which has a hole in the middle of the belly, and which can resist the fire, we put on it three aludels which we surmount with a glass capital to which we adjust a container, we make the pot red, we throw spoonfuls of powdered antimony into it, we plug the hole; and when nothing more comes up, add another spoonful; we continue in the same way as before, until we have used all the antimony that we want to reduce into flowers, we let the vessels cool, and we collect the flowers, they are a violent emetic.

Instead of throwing the antimony alone into the pot, we can use a mixture of three parts of pulverized and dried saltpeter, we put one part of raw antimony which we subtly pulverize, we throw these materials by spoonfuls in the pot, there is a detonation, we add a new mixture, and finally we find white flowers which must be sweetened in lukewarm water, they are emetic.

We see from what we have just said that the flowers made with saltpeter are white, that those which have been sublimated with ammonia salt are red, and that finally those which have no mixture are of various colors; those which are in the upper aludel are sometimes white, in the following aludel there are yellow ones, in the lower one they are red, all this depends on the degrees of the fire.

According to Mr. Le Fèvre, if we melt the flowers of pure antimony in a crucible with double the amount of saltpeter, and we dilute them, we can form an excellent diaphoretic by letting them digest in the spirit of wine for fifteen days, and then setting fire to the material; the dose is from four grains to ten. This same Chymist proposes a correction of antimonial flowers; here is the process: Take an ounce of white flowers of antimony and a half ounce of Sennert tartar salt, melt everything in a crucible, powder the red mass that will form in a hot mortar, add a dram to it and a half of magisterium, dissolvable pearls, and as much magisterium of coral, put everything in a matras, pour in the spirit of aromatized wine up to the eminence of four fingers, make a meeting vessel, let your digesting materials on the ashes for three days, put them in a cucurbit, distill the wine spirit until dry in a bain-marie put what is left in a well-stoppered bottle, it is a very good remedy. good which produces the same effects as the mineral kermes of Lemery, we give it from four grains up to sixteen, we could otherwise dispense with putting the magisterium of pearls, I have not noticed that they produce no effect.

The dose of ammoniacal flowers is from three grains to twelve, they purge from above and below, and they excite sweat.