Treaty of Chemistry according to the principles of Sthall and Newton

ANTIMONY

§ - Antimony.

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

II. The Alchemists named this mineral the red lion, the wolf, the root of metals, the 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 the analysis.

III. Minerals are bitumens cooked to a certain degree of fixity, they are composed of a sulphurous or oily principle, of a vitriolic acid, and of an earth capable of vitrifying and melting; Mercury, according to the Alchemists, is the basis 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 the vitriscible earth which is found different in the different metals, and it is this which distinguishes them from each other; salt is vitriolic, it is almost similar in all, oil is the same as all oils, and binds the two other principles.

V. Antimony is composed of two substances, one metallic, the other sulphurous; the sulfur it contains is a real burning sulfur, which is no different from that of matches, they can be separated by putting the antimony in aqua regia, because it only dissolves the regulin or metallic part, without touching the sulfur which it leaves indissolved, the solution is dried, and the sulfur is sublimated.

VI. The regulin substance of antimony is composed of an inflammable principle, and besides that of a vitrifiable earth with a vitriolic acid which helps it to vitrify. vitrifies, and this glass is only the earthy part united to the salt and separated from its inflammable principle, which given back to this glass gives it back its metallic form on the spot; and whether the oil used to resuscitate this metal is taken from the vegetable, or whether it is drawn from animal substances, this remetallization also succeeds.

VII. There are some who have claimed to make mercury with the regulus of antimony, but it is very uncertain whether this happened by the various operations that have been done on it; one can assure with more foundation that the regulus has much connection with the mercurial substance, because it joins quickly to the acid of the common salt, but it attracts it a little more strongly, because it has a greater affinity with this acid than mercury: all the metals are bound by the sulphurs, but quicksilver eludes the force of this bond, although however it joins it quickly; it is the same with antimony in spelter, it only retains it with a little more force: the relationship that is between these two materials and the gold to which they are closely joined, still mark the resemblance between their tissues; we can therefore assure that there is something mercurial in the regulus, but that is not enough to say that there is really mercury, and that we only have to separate it.

VIII. It was believed that there was lead in antimony, but the ductility which it lacks makes it clear that it is of a very different nature, we have not made lead from a pure antimony: whatever one may say, if the caustic alkali salts soften it a little, they have never operated anything that could give some hope of causing this mineral to extend under the hammer.

IX. As for arsenic, it could be proved more easily that antimony contains it, here are the proofs: nitre burned with phlogistic compounds which have no manifest 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 regulus of antimony, if we work arsenic with lead, the glass takes on a color which is not very different from that of the glass of antimony, and it is found to have emeticity, which is common to these two minerals, I believe that on this basis we can recognize in antimony the presence of some arsenical substance.

X. Crud antimony is employed in sudorific decoctions, when one wishes to expel humors by perspiration, but care must be taken that there is nothing acidic in the decoction, for it would open up and become emetic; it is dangerous when taken in substance in large doses, because it can become emetic in the stomach.

The Carthusian Gold Powder, or the mineral Kermès.

Take four pounds of antimony from Hungary, or failing that, of the best you can find; coarsely grind it, remove the fine dust which would cling to the bottom of the vessel which it would cause to break on the fire, the antimony need only be in small pieces the size of a hazelnut, put this reduced antimony into small pieces in a four or five quart glazed pot, pour into it four pints of rainwater and sixteen ounces of fixed nitre liquor, boil the whole for two hours, or until the liquor has taken on a fairly dark red color; plunge a spoon into this boiling liquor and fill it with it, this liquor at first is clear, but it becomes cloudy as it cools, and deposits at the end some particles which are the sulfur of the antimony; then decant the liquor into a funnel lined with a filter, taking care to leave a third of the liquor in the pot, pour back over this third again twelve ounces of nitre liquor and four pints of boiling water, decant and filter the liquor, leaving another third in the pot as the first time, put back eight ounces of fixed nitre 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 eighteen or twenty hours, pour the liquor by inclination, take the precipitated sulfur and drain it on the filter, pour hot water over it to desalinate it, and continue until it is tasteless, leave the sulfur in the filter, suspend it, and dry it; that done, lay it out, and drop it with a feather into a glazed dish, pour four ounces of brandy into it, burn it, then let the sulfur dry out very slowly, burn it again in the brandy up to three times, and you will have the sulfur of antimony or mineral kermes.

Remarks.

This remedy was used by Ligeria, 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 of it; the Abbé Rousseau was not unaware of it, as we see in his secrets, but it must be admitted that it is M. Lemery to whom we must attribute it, we cannot say that he took it from the Works of Glauber, this Chemist only spoke of it enigmatically, and does not follow the same procedure; moreover Mr. Lemery had undertaken to work antimony with all sorts of materials, his design must necessarily lead him to this preparation, Mr. his son gave the Royal Academy a Memoir on this subject filled with curious observations,

Antimony is composed of a sulphur, as we have said, and of a metallic substance; the alkali salts divide this sulphur, and give it the red color which the sulphurous 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 greatly 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 like this: 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 there will be one which 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 Russel powder what the fixed nitre does on the kermes.

Kermes is emetic when it is found in the stomach of the sourness which develops it, otherwise it is purgative; but if there is nothing in the intestines which must be purged, it passes into the blood: the phlogistic principle which it contains becoming rarefied, it excites sweat, a grain sometimes makes one sweat profusely; if it does not cause sweating, it excites insensible perspiration, it is given to purge the first passages; it is good in intermittent fevers, in diseases of the chest where the blood tends to coagulate; however, precautions must be taken when giving him: he once excited a terrible colic with pain in the testicles; I believe that a glass of oil would have been the remedy for this accident:

The effect of kermes is not always certain, we gave up to nine grains in one day, without seeing any effect, but the next day there were copious evacuations by the stool, with a simple infusion of senna.

The dose of this preparation is two, three, four or five grains; after the first dose of three or four grains, a grain can be given three in three hours in currant jelly, because in liquors it sinks to the bottom, and is not easy to take, it can also be given to a grain in cases where the materials 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.

Calcine over a small fire a pound of powdered antimony in an unglazed pot, stir the material incessantly with an iron spatula until no more smoke comes out; if, however, the powder should lump together, as often happens, put it again in a mortar and pulverize it, have it calcined again, as we have said; when it no longer smokes, and when it takes on a gray color, you will have a powder or a lime which is the reguline part stripped of the burning sulfur and the inflammable principle, which means that it is not a regulus.

Put this powder in a good crucible which you will cover with a tuilot, and place it in a furnace with wind, in which you will make a very violent coal fire which surrounds the crucible; an hour after having introduced an iron rod into it, see when you have withdrawn it, if the matter which will be attached to it is indeed diaphanous; 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 sulphurous matter and the oil which form the metals, are exhaled, there remains an ash or lime which does not melt easily, it can be revivified, according to the principles which we have established, if the fire is continued, 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 form not a metal, but a glass which will be reddish, if some sulfur remains, this is proved by the mixture of two parts of lime of antimony and one part of sulphur, it results from these two materials a red glass; but if the sulphurous matter has been well burned,

If the antimony has been calcined too much, it is necessary to melt it with a little antimony crud, this mixture will give it back the phlogiston which is the principle of fusion: when the material is melted, a stylet is introduced into it; and if it is well disposed to vitrification, it will spin, if the antimony had not been sufficiently calcined, the fillet would be covered with a kind of regulus, then one throws the material on the marble, one grinds it when it is cooled, one puts it back in the crucible as before: a large amount of borax on eight ounces of antimony which would not be well calcined could still make the operation successful.

By the principles we have established, we see that if carbon falls into the crucible, the antimony will be revivified; 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 sulphur, but it is bound and too scanty, the charcoal forms a regulus of the lime, and then the addition of the common sulfur restores the antimony crud.

All the kinds of glass of which we have spoken are emetic, but if they are reduced to an impalpable powder, and if the spirit of wine is burnt on them three or four times, the glass will no longer have so much emeticity. M. de Bellebat had brought this emetic into vogue, he sometimes gave it up to half a large amount in intermittent fevers at the onset of attacks, this remedy caused little vomiting, it was diaphoretic. is what can be done by pouring on the glass of antimony a solution of mastic made in the spirit of wine, and then slowly evaporating the moisture; ten to twelve grains can be given.

Mr. Lemery says that it is surprising that the glass of antimony, which is more compact than the other preparations, causes vomiting with more violence, but all this depends on the matter which is emetic in the antimony, it must be known before saying that it is astonishing that the glass produces such an effect; it would be justified, if there were to be a dissolution of a glass similar to common, but there are other materials in the glass of antimony, it is given in substance from two grains to six; for the 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 crud antimony and saltpetre, pulverize them and mix them, put this mixture in an iron mortar, cover this mortar with a terrine pierced with a hole, introduce a lighted charcoal through this hole, after the detonation strike on the sides with the tweezers, let the mortar cool, strike against the bottom to make the material fall, separate the scoria with a hammer blow, pulverize the reguline part , sweeten it by washing it several times in lukewarm water, it is the saffron of metals.

Remarks.

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

The crocus metallorum serves as a base for emetic tartar, it is still infused in wine, or in liqueurs which by their essential salt develop the principles of antimony; metals can be given more or less emeticity to saffron, by adding more or less nitre: we have said that mineral acids diminish the emeticity of antimony; the nitre must produce this effect in this process.

We can make various crocuses, we have already given some process for that in the treaty of Iron, when the martial regulus is in fusion and that the slags encrust and harden, it is necessary to throw a little sulfur or black flux there, this mixture will hold the slags in fusion; if we use the black flux, it will mix the antimonial parts with the scoria, thus we can revitalize them by adding carbon, and by this addition a true crude antimony will be formed because of the sulfur that we have used; moreover, the mars which is in the scoria of the martial regulus, is very open, it can become a good saffron; when exposed to the air, it changes into a spongy mass which swells; if this matter is dissolved in water, a Mars vitriol is formed.

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

As mineral salts diminish the emeticity of antimony, one could make a saffron which induces vomiting less violently than that of which we have just spoken, by adding equal parts of antimony, nitre and decrepit sea salt; there results from this mixture a mass of red color which has been called rubine of antimony.

It was thought that one could always use the same crocus and the same glass to make emetic wine, but they were mistaken: it is certain that after a certain number of infusions the wine has less strength, it should also be noted that the wine only takes on 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 saltpetre, pulverize them, and mix them, throw a spoonful of them into a red-hot crucible between the coals; after the detonation throw in another spoonful until your mixture is all used up, push the fire for two or three hours, throw your substance into a terrine filled with hot water, let it soak warmly in this water for the space of a day, decant the liquor, wash the white powder which you will find at the bottom in lukewarm water, repeat the lotion until the powder is tasteless, dry what you will have left, it is the diaphoretic antimony.

Remarks.

Diaphoretic antimony is only a calcination of crud antimony or regulus mixed with nitre: if we use crud antimony, three parts of nitre are needed to one part of antimony, and if we use regulus, we need equal parts of nitre, because there is not so 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 sulphur, it quickly takes charge of it, the sulphurous vapors blacken it, and the inflammable principle of the carbons remetallize it, this is why in the operation care must be taken that no carbon falls into 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 give a nitrous salt which burns; if the operation has been carried out with crud antimony, this salt is a kind of polycrete salt, it is composed of the earth of the fixed nitre, and of the vitriolic acids of sulphur; if the nitre were too abundant, we would have some nitrous crystals, this nitre is different from the polycrete salt in that it contains some antimonial parts, because if we pour vinegar on the lye, a white powder is precipitated which is only a portion of the diaphoretic antimony.

Antimony is not emetic by itself, it can be taken raw in substance, without vomiting occurring; but when it is stripped of its sulphur, it is a powerful emetic: there is still dispute about the matter which is emetic in antimony: some have said that it was sulphur, but they have given no proof, moreover antimony crud, according to this idea, should be more emetic than calcined antimony; others have attributed emeticity to the antimonial salt: but what is this salt? Is it 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, the experiments do not support this feeling. For the salt which can enter into the composition of antimony, and which apparently contributes to form the glass, one cannot say that it is emetic, since one cannot develop it, nor make it appear in the form of salt: according to all these difficulties it seems that only the right proportion of salt and sulfur remains, however by the mixture of sulfur and salt one never makes an emetic, one must therefore have recourse to some other cause; if there is anything probable, it is that the arsenical matter is the source of the emeticity of the antimony; what I have said of lead glass mixed with arsenic confirms this idea: but what is the matter which is emetic in arsenic? that is what cannot be determined; one can only say that it must be a body which rises at the orifice of the stomach, and which, by pricking the nerves which surround it, causes the muscles of the abdomen and the diaphragm to convulse. According to the experience of the famous M. 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 have confirmed in Paris what this great Physician has advanced.

In this operation the antimony changes nature, since it becomes diaphoretic; it does not lose its emeticity, because it is stripped of its sulphur, as has been asserted; it is only the mixture of the nitre which produces this effect. It would be in vain to calcine antimony to remove its sulfur, it will always make you vomit; for its diaphoretic virtue it is very light; for it to be noticed, it is necessary to give twenty-four grains of it: this preparation can become emetic, if one pours into it syrup of silt, or some other vegetable acid; it still becomes purgative if the doses are repeated six times in six hours. The great fondant of Paracelsus is only the unwashed diaphoretic powder, this remedy is excellent for removing obstructions, it has been given for sixteen grains,

This preparation can be made with iron regulus, 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 the powder of Tribes which purges very well, it still bears the name of powder of the Count of Warvick.

If you put the refined saltpeter and the antimony in a pot surmounted by three aludels and a small container, you will sublimate a diaphoretic antimony by throwing the mixture by spoonful into the reddened pot, and pushing the fire for a quarter of an hour; in the end as the acid of sulfur is stronger than the nitrous acid, it will join 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 saltpetre; since it has been calcined with sulphur, 1/20 of the material is lost in this operation, it goes up in smoke through the hole of the pot which we are using, but the diaphoretic antimony weighs more than the antimony which we have used, it comes partly from the mixing of the nitre and partly from the calcination which brings the parts together; the fire of the ardent 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 spelter.

Antimony regulus is the metallic substance separated from sulphur.

Take twelve ounces of antimony, twelve ounces of crude tartar, and six ounces of refined saltpetre, grind them into powder; mix everything exactly, heat a large crucible 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 all is used up, then push the fire around the crucible; and when the matter is in fusion, pour it into a mortar or into an iron base greased with tallow and heated, strike the sides of the said base or of the mortar, and the regulus will rush to the bottom; when it is cold you will separate it from the scoriae which are on it; having powdered it, melt it again in another crucible, throw in a little saltpetre; there will arise some small flame, which having passed overturn your material on a neat and greased iron mortar, let it cool, you will have four and a half ounces of regulus.

Remarks.

Antimony, as we have said, is a metallic, arsenical, sulphurous matter: the sulfur is joined to the metal quite weakly; the matter which holds 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 instead of the metallic substance only glass. The nitre produces the same effect, by the deflagration it removes the inflammable matter: the fixed alkali salt which takes care of the crude sulfur dividing it, also divides the regulin matter, the common salt or acts in the same way as the fixed alkali salt, or alters the antimony so little, that it does not separate the sulfur from the regulus; we see by this that it is necessary to have recourse to some other material or to some other process to make the separation of the sulphur, without touching the inflammable and metallic material: the imperfect metals, such as lead, tin, copper, are very suitable for this; but let us first see what we must think of the ordinary processes.

In the common operation that I have proposed, one can hardly draw more than a regulus which only amounts to a fourth part of the antimony that has been used, however there is at least half of this mineral which is metallic; one finds many scoriae which are only the salts which one has used joined with what has separated from the antimony; in this mass there is a brown and yellowish powder which has emeticity; besides that there is a large quantity of it which after the washing of the scoria appears red and blackish, and which takes on a lumpy consistency, it is called the impure sulfur of antimony, the rest of the washing precipitated by some acid gives the golden sulfur, the first powder is nothing other than the divided regulus, because it has the same weight.

Some make the regulus by calcining the antimony with the charcoal, after which they melt the mass which becomes the regulus because the charcoal, when burned, refurnishes the oily or phlogistic principle which we have named the principle of inflammation; according to Mr. Sthall, this process gives much more trouble than profit.

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

We also take antimony lime, which is only the vitrible earth stripped of its burning sulphur, we mix coal with this lime, we put a little saltpetre in it to begin to melt the mass, the oily parts revive the earth, and it forms a regulus and not an antimony, because for that it must give back its mineral sulphur; thereby we have more regulus than with the ordinary method.

If we take the earth which has been used to make the emetic tartar, and melt it with the saltpetre, the regulus will come back, because the saltpetre develops the oily parts of the sulfur remaining in this earth.

We have said that only a quarter of regulus is obtained by the process 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 with it regulus, because it is composed of a bituminous and alkaline part; by the bituminous part it is attached to the regulin part, and by its alkaline part it remains united with the salts, the regulus which could not be removed remains at the bottom; if it loses some of its oily part, the alkali salt gives it back.

The salt of tartar melted with antimony does not give any regulus, because it acts on the regulin part and on the fatty part from which it is stripped, the 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 saltpetre with antimony, the saltpetre suddenly melts, and makes of it the antimonial hepar, the regulin part remains very divided and extended in the part of the saltpetre which is alkalized with the oily and sulphurous part of the antimony, the acid of the nitre and of the sulfur has escaped; if we put three parts of saltpeter against one part of antimony, the saltpeter removes both the oil and the coarse sulphur, leaving only the antimony lime which is fixed because it is joined with a kind of polycrete salt which occupies all its pores so well; that it can only be melted with difficulty, it does not vitrify without addition.

There are Artists who detonate the saltpeter and the tartar together to make a black flux which they project on the molten antimony, I strongly approve of this method which can prevent the deflagration of the saltpeter and the tartar together with the antimony from removing something from the metallic substance.

We marked in our process that it was necessary to put equal parts of saltpeter and tartar, but it is possible that in this way the tartar does not keep enough oil to remetallize the lime, I believe that it would be better to put one part of saltpeter against two parts of tartar, it seems that more spelter will come from it.

I returned to speak of 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 are iron, copper, lead, silver; depending on whether these metals can imbibe a small or large quantity of sulphur, more or less is added: for example, iron can take on double the sulfur that antimony contains in equal parts, which is why in making the spelter with iron one must regulate on this; for the other metals here is the proportion, one needs equal parts of antimony and copper, three parts of lead on one of antimony, equal parts of silver and antimony: these regulus made with metals, are called metallic; the one we gave in our process,

There appears a star on the regulus, and the alchemists have made a great deal 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 announced to these happy men 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 call this matter regulus, that is to say, Little King, but the Chemists Physicists see nothing but very simple in this star; because the antimony being in fusion, all its parts are in motion, this movement is greater in the center than at the circumference: it is therefore necessary that the antimonial parts are pushed from the center towards the circumference, whence the walls must still 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 regulus 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 look at each other; moreover, this star is not only on the surface, it is found throughout the entire extent of the regulus from the base of the cone to the tip.

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

Balls are made from the regulus of antimony, and they are called perpetual pills, which have sometimes been used in misery ; M. Lemery claims that the weight of these pills when passing through the intestines decreases, but we can be sure that this decrease is not perceptible; 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 inflammations there.

§ - The Martial Regulates.

Regule Martial is the metallic part of antimony separated with 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 above and below a large fire, project 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, throw in little by little three ounces of saltpetre, there will be a detonation, and the clouds will start in fusion: when your matter will no longer sparkle, throw it into a heated iron crucible and coated with tallow, strike on the sides with the tweezers, so that the regulus separates better; after that you will separate the scoriae by a hammer blow when everything is cooled, melt this regulus again, and put on it two ounces of pulverized antimony, add three ounces of nitre little by little when everything is in fusion; when the saltpetre will be burned, and you will see no more sparks coming out, take a heated and greased iron cone, invert your material, strike around it, as before, and the whole thing being cooled, separate the regulates from the slag, as we have marked it; repeat the fusion of the regulus twice, and throw saltpetre into it each time and especially the last time, so that the star looks good.

Remarks.

There are two kinds of regulus, the simple regulus and the metallic regulus: the simple regulus is one in which no part of the metals that have been used remain; the metal regule is the one that retains part of the metal with which it is made.

The spelter 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 fused the first time, the slag is thick and separates with some difficulty: as the regulus must still be smelted, one need not take much trouble about it, however, if one wishes to prevent these slag from sticking together so strongly, throw into the molten material some potion of alkali salt, gravel ashes, fixed nitre, or some other similar material; the whole having been cooled, the slag will separate without difficulty: after the regulus 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 on the other, and the matter cools before these particles can rise towards the scoria, from which comes this yellowish color which one sometimes sees in this regulates; to purify it well, one only has to melt it with the fourth part of crud antimony on a slow fire, you will then have a purified spelter better than before; there remains, however, an arsenical matter which makes it friable, and, so to speak, bristling; to banish this matter, you have only to melt it, and throw in it a drachma of nitre; as soon as the detonation is made, you will throw as much into it, you will continue in this way up to six drachmas, the slag which then appears is dry and not very fusible,

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

In the regulus made with copper, the plates of copper being firmer than those of antimony, they cool rather; these copper blades are taken first as they are, while the rest of the regule is of cast iron; this remnant of regulus then coming to cool, diminishes and lowers; the parts of the copper then being higher on the surface, form a more or less regular figure according to chance, this is the explanation of this mysterious regulus among the Alchemists who call it Head of Vulcan in which Mars and Venus are found linked together.

The scoriae of the regulus are nothing but mars and sulphurous matter which are united in a brittle and friable mass; if these slags are exposed to the air, they crack, bloom and finally give a beautiful vitriol, because the acid of the sulfur becoming rarefied and joining with the alkaline earth of mars, becomes vitriol.

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

You can take a pound of cloud tips or iron filings, heat a crucible, and when it is very red put the clouds in it; when the iron is white, all you have to do is throw in two and a half pounds of antimony, this will save the trouble of adding new antimony to the second fusion of the regulus: which we then examine with a net if the material is in perfect fusion; if it is perfectly melted, if four ounces of nitre are thrown into it per half ounce, the regule will be perfectly spangled from the second time.

This regulates is of the same use as the first, it has the same virtues; the regulus of martial antimony is used rather than the others, to make cups or beakers: it is believed that it is less sour, because iron has been mixed in it; but if the regulus is purified properly, this reason will not be able to subsist.

§ - Golden sulfur of Antimony.

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

Boil the scoriae of the first regulus 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 matter which will precipitate, you will dry it and you will keep it, this is called golden sulfur of antimony.

Remarks.

The slag which issues from the regulus of antimony is a mineral sulphur, 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 up the sulphur, attenuates it and divides it, this makes a red sulfur which is a true hepar sulphuris; we can separate this sulphur, which being red and dark, is called golden sulphur.

You can boil the slag, as we have noted, but you can also leave it to dissolve in the cellar in fatty liquor, red with the color of dark saffron, and filter the solution; as regards the fixed red powder which is deposited, it is the same thing as that of the kermes, because the saltpetre detonated and fixed with the tartar is the same thing as the nitre fixed by the coals, it is dissolved in oil in the cellar, it extends and rarefies the antimonial sulfur in the same way.

In order then to separate the sulfur sustained in the water by the alkali salt, an acid is poured into it; as the acids have more affinity with the alkali salts than with the sulphurs, they join with these alkali salts which then let the sulphur escape.

There are regulin parts suspended with the sulphurs, because if we take the scoria, we can revitalize the regulus which is enclosed therein; there are therefore some which precipitate with golden sulphur, otherwise it would not differ from common sulphur; we can see from what we have said elsewhere how much sulfur remains in the scoriae.

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

The acid of wine, of vinegar, of silts, increases the emeticity of antimony, whereas that of minerals arrests the emetic virtue, thus if one pours spirit of vitriol diluted in a lot of water on the solution 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 again distilled vinegar on the liquor which has deposited the sulphur, it will still precipitate again which will be more subtle and less emetic, we could also withdraw golden sulfur from the scoriae of the second regulates, it would have the same virtues, but it would not take so much water, because there remained less sulfur in these last operations; these slags, moreover, do not form coagulum like the others when they are boiled, this comes only from the quantity of sulfur which is found to be different in the two cases.

It does not appear that the golden sulfur of antimony of which the ancients speak to us is the same as ours, for they gave it a diaphoretic virtue, and ours is emetic; moreover, we find in their writings that the antimony contained a superficial, coarse sulphur, similar to the common sulphur, which is precisely that which comes to us in this preparation; they said that there was another fixed one which was the solar and aurific sulfur to which they attributed the virtue of making sweat.

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

§ - Tincture of Antimony.

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

Take the scoria from the regulus made with tartar and saltpeter, reduce this scoria to powder, throw them into a matrass, pour over it spirit of wine at the height of three fingers, put the matter in digestion, the spirit of wine will take care of the tincture, decant it after that; and if you don't find it dyed enough, evaporate it up to a third, that's the tincture of antimony.

Remarks.

One can draw a tincture from antimony, regulus, glass, slag, but the menses are different, for that one uses vinegar, the spirit of vinegar concentrated by copper, and which is called acetum radicum, the spirit of wine, the spirit of cochlearia, Glaubert's alkaest, oak vinegar .

After the first melting of the regulus, the sulfur is found open, exalted, attenuated, fit to be communicated to some liquor, as to the spirit of wine which otherwise would not act on the antimony. If one wants to have a good tincture, this spirit of wine must not be well rectified, because the alkali salts are attached to the sulphurs, and if one wants to free them from them, phlegm is needed to dissolve them, then they will fall to the bottom while the spirit of wine will remain charged with the tincture; whence it follows that the spirit of wine is exactly dephlegmated, for the phlegm attaches itself to the alkali salt, and never leaves it.

M. Homberg took some glass of transparent antimony, he crushed it and put it in a matrass overflowing distilled vinegar, he made fire under it, so that the matter was always burning, the vinegar took on an orange tint, he decanted this vinegar, and put more, which he decanted again when it was sufficiently colored; he repeated this until the vinegar no longer took on a color, then he melted this glass which became less transparent, he crushed it, and drew the tincture from it again with the vinegar as before; he melted this glass for the third time, and thereby made it more opaque, he still drew the tint from it until the vinegar no longer took on a color; he was evaporating all that half-dyed vinegar,

When we perform our operation, we must block the matrass with a parchment that 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 induces vomiting, because the regulin parts which may still be there are too attenuated and divided, or they are embarrassed by sulfurs, and besides that the spirit of wine is too subtle to support much.

§ - Bibal powder.

This preparation is a calcination of the regulus by saltpetre and tartar.

Take a pound and a half of the less brilliant and more iron-laden martial regulus, 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 from the second fired; after that throw a spoonful of it on the melted regulus, there will be a detonation, stir everything so that the mixture penetrates the regulus and melts it; the detonation passed, take with a spoon the foamy saline matter which will be on the regulates, throw this saline matter thus withdrawn in a vessel where you will have put brandy, cover first after this vessel lest the brandy catch fire, and turn away the face; then put a new spoonful of salt on the regulus, and after the detonation remove the matter which is on the regulus, and throw it away, as before, in brandy; continue thus until all the regulates is carried away, or until your salt is all employed, let digest the whole thing in terrines covered during fifteen days, so that the paste feeds in the brandy, after that lock up your matter in pots for fear that it does not dry out.

Remarks.

This powder is the invention of a chemist named Bibal, he has been in great vogue for 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; one sees it by the Operation where the tartar and the saltpetre form a species of alkali salt which is loaded with some oily and regulin parts of the antimony; it is a kind of unwashed mineral diaphoretic; it is a little emetic because of the antimonial parts it contains; the dose is twelve to fifteen grains for delicate persons, and twenty for the 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 receptacle in it, strain the joints, give a light fire at the beginning, there will come a clear oil, then push the fire to the second degree, the neck of the retort will be charged with a white oil; approach a lighted charcoal to this oil, so that it does not thicken: continue until a red substance comes; change the container and fight the joints; push the fire for four hours, so that the retort reddens; let your materials cool, and then break the retort, you will find sublimated cinnabar in the neck.

Remarks.

The first thing that we observe in this operation is to triturate the materials together, so that the mixture is made more exactly: we use a glass mortar, because if we used a metal vessel, a kind of butter would be formed by the corrosion that the sublimate would do: a powder rises during the trituration, it is very harmful, because it causes vomiting, salivation, swelling and languor which only end 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 blows the vessel to pieces, the corrosive sublimate spreads at the same time in the air,

The acid of the sea-salt is joined with the mercury in the sublime, but as it has more relation to the antimony, it attaches to it and leaves the mercury: this compound acquires more surface than the mercury, so it must rather rise; the parts of antimony having only a certain attraction, should only be charged with a certain quantity of acid, thus it would be useless to put a lot of sublimate with 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 which these two materials form, rises almost as easily as the spirit of wine in the retort, it is not only the antimony which can be volatilized by this method, the gold which is fixed can become volatile in the same way.

Cinnabar is only mercury joined to sulphur: in this operation antimonial sulphur, which is the same as common sulphur, attaches itself to the mercurial parts, thus it must result from it a cinnabar which one can decompose by mixing it in a retort with twice the salt of tartar, then if one gives a great fire, the sulfur attaches itself to the salt, and the mercury escapes; if we then want to separate the salt from the sulfur, we have only to boil the whole 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 regule alone, this comes from the mixture of a few sulphurous parts; if the sulfur had risen with the butter in too great a quantity because of the violence of the fire, the mass would be brown, it would then have to be put back into a retorte, and distilled over a low heat, there remains at the bottom a black matter from which a spelter can be removed by fusion with the saltpeter and the tartar.

There are those who have wanted to rectify the antimonial cinnabar by having it sublimated, but it changes neither color nor properties by sublimation, butter can suffer more change by rectification; if it is heated, melted, and then gently distilled in a retort over a sand fire, it will volatilize more, and produce more prompt effects.

Butter must be banned 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.

§ - Powder of Algaroth or Mercury of Life.

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

Remarks.

The marine acid which is joined with the antimony, is detached 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 fixed powder of volatiles that they were before; they are changed into very pure regulates, if they are put into fusion.

We see from what I have just said that water alone sometimes suffices to fix a very volatile body, here it removes the salt, and thereby it becomes acid; Mr. Boile calls this water dry spirit of vitriol, but I don't know why; it contains nothing approaching vitriol, it is only a true spirit of salt which is a marvelous menstruation, that is where the name menstruuum peracutum comes from; it has a little mercury, because it whitens gold; and if an alkali salt such as tartar is thrown into it, a sea salt is formed.

We have said that antimony loses its emeticity by the mixture of mineral acids; whence it follows that if the powder of algaroth were not watered down, it would hardly induce vomiting, but when it is discharged it is a powerful emetic; it has been regarded as a specific for epilepsy, but such a violent remedy should only be advised with great caution.

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

§ - Mineral besoard.

Take butter of antimony, drop spirit of nitre into it until the matter is dissolved, evaporate the moisture on a sand fire in a glass curcurbite until a dry manner remains; when the ship is cooled, throw on this remaining matter of new spirit of nitre, make 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 in a violent fire, it is the mineral besour of Basil Valentine.

Remarks.

The powder of Algaroth dissolved with the spirit of salt and with the spirit of nitre, gives a mineral besoard; if the moisture is evaporated, which happens without the Operation we have just described, is the same thing; the spirit of sea salt is incorporated into the antimony, the spirit of nitre is added to it, and then an aqua regia is formed which puts the regulin parts into solution, the humidity is then evaporated, and thereby the acids partly abandon the antimony; there will therefore remain a metallic matter which is calcined, and therefore, corrosive as it was, it will not be emetic, but it will approach diaphoretic antimony; for 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 have said, with Algaroth powder, because this powder is an antimony separated from the marine acid; one has therefore only to dissolve it, to evaporate the humidity, and to calcine what remains.

Basil Valentin 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 venom, since having been part of one of the great poisons, she had retained nothing of it, it is from there that the name of besoard came to her.

The dose is from six grains up to twenty.

§ - Antimonial panacea.

Take two parts of powdered crystal of tartar, add one part of antimony, boil the whole in a matrass where you have put four or five times as much hot water, stopper the matrass, boil the materials for six or seven hours, then pour in as much oil of tartar as you have 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 have to be exposed to humid air so that it dissolves 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 tartarous alkali salt: we will see according to the laws of attraction or affinity that the acids must insinuate themselves into the oil of tartar: and after this union from which there results an effervescence, an emetic tartar will be formed; but there is some difference between panacea and tartar emetic, for butter has an acid sea salt and some remnant of mercury which may be attached to antimony.

There is an effervescence when the oil of tartar is poured over the butter and the crystal, the marine acid must leave the butter and go and join the fixed alkali salt, the acid which is in the crystal can also attach itself in part to the alkali; but as it is embarrassed among the oily filaments of 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 the use of hot water, otherwise it would not release the acids. 2° the effervescence could cause the vessel to burst, so the materials must have space to become scarce. (3) the materials must be stirred during evaporation, so that the oily substance does not stick to the bottom of the vessel. 4° when one exposes the matter to the humid place after evaporation, it must not resolve entirely into liquor, because there is an oily and antimonial portion which does not become moistened like the salts, thus 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 a glass retort with them, place your vessel on the street lamp fire, adjust a receptacle to it, give a light fire at the beginning, then push it until no more vapors come from it, let the vessels cool, pour into a matrass what will be in the receptacle, put there spirit of tartarified wine until the eminence of four fingers, let it all digest in a steam bath for four days, filter the liquor cold, put it in a cucurbit that you will place in a bain-marie, remove the spirit of wine, keep this oil or this butter in a flask.

Remarks.

The name of oil has been given to various preparations of antimony: one takes, for example, the spirit of salt and oil of vitriol in equal parts, one adds as much pulverized antimony, one leaves the materials in digestion for two days on the sand, one then gives a fire which one pushes to the second degree, and one has 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 which we have just given is nothing other than the antimonial parts joined to the oily acid of sugar and to the spirit of wine, it is an excellent remedy for recent wounds and for ulcers: M. Le Fèvre says that it can be used successfully in the cure of fevers, for this we take an ounce of aloe purified by the juice of blessed charcoal and reduced to an extract, two drachmas of ambergris, a drachma of tincture of saffron evaporated to the consistency of syrup, mix everything with an ounce of antimony balsam; the dose is from four grains up to sixteen in some can.

The Hermetic Philosophers have spoken of a philosophical oil of antimony of which they make a great deal: Popius has given a description of it; but Jean Agricola, of whom I spoke, says that it cannot be made 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 by sweating; and far from weakening, like ordinary sudorifics, it gives new strength; this Chemist says that he has seen the miraculous effects of it in fever four, in venereal diseases and in other ailments: here is the process he followed.

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

Take two pounds of antimony mine from Hungary, pulverize it very subtly, put it in a curcurbite, pour into it yellow spirit, the preparation of which we have given, up to the height of three fingers, let the whole thing digest gently for ten or twelve days, decant the liquor, pour in new spirit until it no longer takes on color; distil your impregnations until you have a substance in the consistency of honey, pour on this mass of the spirit of wine, let digest the substance until the spirit is colored, decant the liquor, pour it again until you only have black faeces left, distill your impregnations in the bath until you have a beautiful oil left, pour in the spirit of wine, let it digest for a month in a steam bath, put it in a retorte lute, and gently remove the spirit by distillation, then adapt another container, push the fire, and you will have an oil red like blood; take itcaput mortuumwhich you have removed by all the distillations, put it in a well-lit pot over the street lamp fire until the matter is brown red, pour in distilled vinegar; when it will be colored yellow, decant it, and pour in again until it is no longer colored, mix your impregnations, and remove the vinegar by distillation in the bath, you will find at the bottom of the still a saline mass, pour in distilled rainwater; 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, reverberate them gently, pour rainwater back into them, the crystals dissolving will leave feces 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 vial, pour the red oil into it when it precipitates from the faeces, put your matter in a retort and distill it; if all does not rise, throw again on what remains what the distillation gives you, and give a strong fire, it is necessary that only some spongy faeces remain; put your liquor in a vial, stopper it well, and coagulate your matter by degrees, you will finally have a red powder which is the quintessence of antimony of which Agricola gave a drachma with various mixtures. throw again on what remains what the distillation gives you, and give a strong fire, it is necessary that only some spongy faeces remain; put your liquor in a vial, stopper it well, and coagulate your matter by degrees, you will finally have a red powder which is the quintessence of antimony of which Agricola gave a drachma with various mixtures. throw again on what remains what the distillation gives you, and give a strong fire, it is necessary that only some spongy faeces remain; put your liquor in a vial, stopper it well, and coagulate your matter by degrees, you will finally have a red powder which is the quintessence of antimony of which Agricola gave a drachma with various mixtures.

Here is a process which is a little long, the Author himself says that it is not so easy as it seems at first, he asks for an experienced Artist who knows the art of giving fire; the length of the work, according to this chymist, should not put off, one is abundantly rewarded for one's pains 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 most solid minds visionary, one must not let oneself be dazzled by the promises which are found in books which deal with transmutation and universal remedies.

§ - Flowers of Antimony.

Take three parts of antimony and two of flowers of sal ammoniac, throw these materials into a cucurbit, place this vessel in a furnace, plug the gap which is between the walls of the furnace and the vessel, adapt to the cucurbit a capital with a small container, fight the joints, give a small fire, there will come a liquor, and flowers will attach to the capital, continue the fire until the flowers change a little colored, remove the capital, put a blind one in its place, fight the joints, push the fire, you will have variously colored flowers which must be watered down in lukewarm water.

Remarks.

Antimony volatilizes with sal ammoniac, all these flowers have the same properties, although they have different colors, we use various processes to make them sublimate, we can use sal ammoniac in substance with antimony, then the materials being heated, it must separate a little marine acid which will join the antimony, while the urinary alkali salt will rise. There are Artists who use antimony dissolved in aqua regia and dried over a slow fire, so we find faeces in which there is a lot of sea salt, flowers prepared with triple nitre as well as the mineral diaphoretic, lose their emeticity, and grow by sweating, Van Helmont calls this preparation the fixed flowers of antimony, he gives her great praises in a Treatise written in Flemish, and says that she chases away all sorts of diseases by sweat; but skilful Physicians who wanted to see if the experiment answered all these beautiful promises, did not notice great effects of this remedy: this diaphoretic powder stripped of the nitre by lotions, if one mixes it with 1/2 of resin of scammonée and 1/6 of cream of tartar, gives a purgative which bears the name of Diaceltateson, of Van Helmont and of Paracelsus; the dose is from sixteen grains up to thirty. According to the experience of a famous Physician, it is an excellent remedy against intermittent fevers; this preparation does not differ much from cornachine powder, in the one the ordinary diaphoretic is employed, and in the other Van Helmont's diaphoretic.

We have in this operation which we have described, 1st, a liquor which contains a volatile spirit of sal ammoniac; 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 sulphur. 3° It comes from flowers of various colors, we put them in a glass curcurbite to which we adapt a blind capital, we read the joints, we place the vessel on the sand, we give a fairly strong fire which we increase little by little, we continue until flowers which are not yellow rise, we let the vessels cool, we separate the flowers, and we wash them in lukewarm water, they have the same properties as the first.

One makes flowers of antimony without addition, one takes a pot which has a hole in the middle of the belly, and which can resist the fire, one puts there three aludels which one surmounts with a glass capital to which one adjusts a recipient, one makes red the pot, one throws there by spoonfuls of antimony in powder, one plugs the hole; and when it doesn't rise any more, add another spoonful; we continue as before, until we have used all the antimony that we want to reduce to flowers, we let the vessels cool, and we pick up 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 saltpetre, we put a part of antimony raw which we pulverize subtly, we throw these materials by spoonfuls into the pot, there is a detonation, we put the mixture again, 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 saltpetre are white, that those which have been sublimated with sal ammoniac are red, and that finally those which have no mixture are of various colors; those in the upper aludel are sometimes white, in the next aludel there are yellow ones, in the lower one they are red,

According to M. Le Fèvre, if the flowers of pure antimony are caused to flow in a crucible with double the amount of saltpeter, and if they are watered down, an excellent diaphoretic can be formed from them by letting them digest in the spirit of wine for a fortnight, and then setting fire to the material; the dose is from four grains up to ten. This same Chemist proposes a correction of the antimonial flowers; here is the process: Take an ounce of white flowers of antimony and a half ounce of Sennert tartar salt, melt the whole thing in a crucible, powder the red mass which will form in a hot mortar, add to it one and a half drachmae of magisterium, of soluble pearls, and as much of magisterium of coral, put the whole thing in a matrass, pour in flavored wine spirit up to the eminence of four fingers,

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