Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/561

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fire get out fo very regularly and infenfibly, that the mole- cular cooling equally all together, form no arrangements. This is found by letting a crucible of melted antimony {land on fome burning coals, and gradually cool as their heat burns away and decreafes ; in which cafe the mafs will have perhaps no needles at all, or if any, then but very few. It may be objected to this, that if the refrigeration of the mafs is the only caufe of the needles in antimony, all melted metals ought to afford the fame appearance alfo, if cooled in the fame manner : and poilibly indeed all do fo ; we fee them eafily in antimony, becaufe it breaks with a flight blow, without difordering the configuration of its parts, the com- binations of its molecules into needles being more firm than that of the needles to one another ; but in metals which lequire more force to break them, the needles may perhaps rather break than feparatc, and by more force mutt be more difordered; and all the parts may be as regularly arranged in a ductile mafs,' as in a brittle one, though we are not able to difCover that arrangement.

Lead, when hot to a proper degree, ceafes to be ductile, and is brittle, and lead broken at this juncture is found to be granulated, appearing like broken fteel; there is no reafon to doubt but that this is alfo the cafe, when that metal is perfectly cold, but that the force required to feparatc, or break it, deftroys its proper ftructure.

Mr. Reaumur melted lead in a conical crucible, and fuffer- ing it to cool to a certain degree only, he broke the mafs into feveral large lumps by a fmart blow of a hammer, and Iri thefe found the fame needles as in antimony, the granules having cohered in long trains, juft as the moleculse of the antimony -j and the difpofitions of the feveral groupes of nee- dles in the lead, in regard to the fides and bottom of the crucible, were the very fame with thofe of antimony. But there is this manifeft difference between the needles of lead, and thofe of antimony, that whereas the latter are flat and extremely glofty, the former are vifibly round, and much lefs bright. Mem. Acad. Scienc.Par. 1724. Ore of Antimony. The way of running down antimony out of its ore by the afTayers, is as follows. Take a crucible that will hold fome pounds of antimony ore, broken into pieces of the fize of a hazel-nut, and bore at the bottom of it a few fmall holes with a common gimblet j place this bot- tom in the mouth of another {mailer crucible, put in the ore, and cover the orifice with a tile; then lute all the junc- tures, and place this on the pavement of the hearth, making a circle of Hones all round it, at fix inches difrance ; fill this intermediate fpace with afhes, fo high, that the lower pot may be covered up to its rim, then put frefh burning coals upon the whole, and blow the fire ftrongly with a pair of hand-bellows, to make the upper veffel red-hot : when it has been fo a quarter of an hour, take away the fire, and when the veflels are cold, open them, and the antimony will be found in form of a regulus in the under veffel. Cramer's Art of AfTaying, p. 356.

The moft ready method of fufing antimony, yet known, is by means of that mineral fubflance called cawk. A lump of this, of the bignefs of a wallnut, thrown red-hot into a pound of antimony in fufion, converts almoft the whole fub- ftance of it into glafs, fifteen ounces of clean and fine glafs being thus produced ; and what is very remarkable, the cawk itfelf never melts in the metal.

The purification of gold, by means of antimony, is performed in this manner. ■ Before you enter on the procefs, it is ne- ceffary to guefs, as nearly as may be, at the allay of the gold, by the touch-needles, or otherwife. If the quantity of gold in the mafs is not lefs than three quarters, that is, eighteen carats, the mafs muff, be melted in a wind-furnace, and the crucible mult be covered, to prevent coals falling in ; this done, put into it, at feveral times, double the quantity of crude antimony in fine powder, as foon as one portion of the antimony is melted, putting in another : let the whole continue in fufion a few minutes, then pour it in- to a melting cone, warmed, and rubbed with tallow, and ftrike with a hammer on the floor, near where the cone ftands, that the heavier part may fink to the bottom. When all is cold, invert the cone, and ftrike it, and a mafs will fall out, having at bottom a regulus, more or lefs yellow, according to the quantity of the gold in the mixture; this may with a few blows be feparated from the'fulphurcous emit, which is at top. Melt in a fmaller fire this regulus, and when in fufion add to it a double quantity of crude an- timony in powder, and pour It out into the cone again a little after ; feparatc the regulus from the antimony at top, and then repeat this operation once more. When this is done, put the feparated regulus into a thick good teft, place this in the furnace immediately before the bellows, put coals round it, and one or two pieces of wood upon them, and make a middling fire, fuch as is fufficient to melt the regu- lus, the reguline part of the antimony will vanifli in a thick fmoak; then encreafe the fire, and keep it fo, till the fumes are over, and the furface of the gold is of a fine green ; and afterwards give the gold another fufion with borax and nitre, and it will be perfectly pure. When the gold to be purified by this procefs is impure to

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an allay of eight carats, it is not proper to perform the pre* cipitation by antimony alone, but there fhould be added as

, many times two carats of common fulphur, as the allay of the gold is fo many carats lefs than eighteen, Cramer's Art of Allaying, p. 276.

Stibium, in medicine, c5\r. is net only given in fubftance, but many preparations ot itare alfo ufed ; which are either emetic* cathartic, diaphoretic, or fudorific. Crude antimony in pow- der is found good for diJlblving vifcidities, in cutaneous dif- eafes, and, as fome very confidently aflert, in convulfions and epileptics. Externally, in ointments, it is commended for drying up ulcers, curing the itch, and in plaiflers for refolving of tumors*

There appears no reafon for people's being afraid of giving crude antimony internally, experience fhews it to be a fafe medicine, unlefs by accident the acid of the ftomach fhould prove ftrong enough to be a menftruum to it. The preparations of antimony are, 1. fulphur pracipitatum an- timonii. 2. Crocus antimonii, called alfo crocus metallorum, 3. Crocus antimonii lotus. 4. Calx antimonii, called antimo- ninm. diaphoretienm. 5. Tartarian emetician. 6. Cavjlkum ai »■ timoniale. 7. Cinnabaris antimonii. 8. Regulus antimonii martialis. 9. 'Tinclura antimonii. 10. The Kcrmes mineral, or Carthufian powder. See the articles Sulphur, Crocus, Calx, c5V. Cycl. and Suppl.

The virtues of anthmmy, in the difcafes of animals^ are very great, and very evident on any trial. Pigs that have the meafles are at all times recovered by it, which proves it a great purifier cf the blood. Horfes who have running heels, that cannot he cured by the common methods ufed by the" farriers, will generally be cured by this medicine in a little time. The manner of ufing it is this : mix one drachm with every feeding of oats which the horfe has in a morn- ing j it is befl put together in one place, buried under a few oats, and the horfe's head being with-he'd a little, and then let go juft againlt that place, he will take it all in at a mouth- ful. Some horfes do not diflike it, others obftinately re- fute it, but to thefe it may eafily be given in balls. The virtues of this drug, in fattening of cattle, has by many been thought imaginary, but experiment proves it to be a real truth. A horfe that is lean and fcabby, and not to be fatted by any other means, will become fat on taking a dofe of antimony every morning, for two months together. A boar fed for brawn, and having an ounce of antimony given him every morning, will become fat a fortnight fooner than others put into the ftye at the fame time, and fed in the fame manner, but without the antimony. Philofoph. Tranf.

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Crude antimony is recommended in palfies, pains, and numb • nefs, which come on after a falivation, and is faid to have cured feveral who were paralytic from other caufes. The method of giving it, is to begin with three grains, increaf- ing the dofe with three grains every day, to half a drachm ; after which the dofe is diminifhed three grains every day, till it comes down to the-quantity of the firft dofe. Com- merc. Liter. Norimb. ap. Medic. En". Edinb. Antimony, before the twelfth age, was of fcrvice only in the composition of paint. Scripture defcribes it to us as a fort of paint, with which the women blackened their eyebrows. Jezabel undcrftanding that Jehu was to enter Samaria, paint- ed her eyes with antimony, or, according to the Hebrew, put her eyes in antimony.

As large black eyes were thought the fmeft, they of both fexes, who were careful of their beaut v, rubbed their eyes, eyelids, and round the eyes, with a needle dipped in a box of paint made of antimony, with a defign of blackening them.

At this- day the women of Syria, Arabia, and Babylonia, anoint and blacken themfclves about the eyes ; and both men and women put black upon their eyes in the defert, to pre- ferve them from the heat of the fun, and the piercing of its rays. M. Darvieux tells us, that the Arabian women border their eyes with a black colour made of tutty, which the Arabians call rebel. They draw a line of this kind of black- ing without the corner of their eyes, to make them appear larger. Ifaiah, in his enumeration of the feveral ornaments belonging to the daughters of Sion, has not forgot the nee- dles which they made ufe of in painting their eyes and eye- lids ; nor has this practice efcaped thejafh of Juvenal *.

Ilk fuperc-lium madida fuligine tinSium Obliqim producit acu, pingitque iremmtes Attollens oculos.

Ezefciel, discovering the irregularities of the Jewifh nation under the idea of a debauched woman, fays, that fhe bathed) perfumed herfelf, and that fhe anointed her eyes with anti- mony. Job fhews lufficiently how pftach antimony was in efteem, by calling one of his daughters a veffel of antimony, or a box to put paint in, cornu Jlibii. Tertuilian and St. Cvprian have declaimed very warmly againft this cuftom of painting; their eyes and eyebrows c .— [ b Juv. Sat. 2. e Cal* ntei's Dictionary.]

Stibium