i6 



HISTORY of the SOCIETY. 



Account of ex- 

 periments on 

 Antimony by 

 Mr Ruflell. 



per, entitled, Experiments on the Motion of the Sap in Trees. 

 The paper is publifhed in this volume. [No. I. Phyf. Cl. ] 



AT the fame meeting, Mr JAMES RUSSELL, furgeon, read an 

 account of fome experiments made by^him on antimony. The 

 object of thefe experiments was to find an eafy and a cheap me- 

 thod of obtaining a folution of regulus of antimony in the mu- 

 riatic acid, with a view to the preparation of tartar emetic, ac- 

 cording to the directions in the laft edition of the Difpenfatory 

 of the Royal College of Phyficians in Edinburgh > the ufe of 

 butter of antimony, as there directed, implying a very tedious, 

 complicated, and expenfive procefs. Mr RUSSELL endeavoured 

 to obtain pure dephlogiflicated muriatic acid in a fluid form, 

 by adding to it the black calx of manganefe, (freed from par- 

 ticles of iron by digeflion with vitriolic acid, and afterwards 

 calcined by heat,) and then diftilling it : But he found it im- 

 poffible to condenfe the fumes of the muriatic acid when thus 

 dephlogiflicated, (as it appeared to be by the black calx of manga- 

 nefe becoming white,) thoxigh he ufed a very long-necked retort, 

 and had the receiver, containing water, immerfed in fnow ; 

 for this acid, contrary to what happens to all the others, be- 

 comes much more volatile on being dephlogiflicated. 



HE then tried the effect of the vapours of this dephlogifli- 

 cated muriatic acid on regulus of antimony placed in the re- 

 ceiver, and in the neck of the retort. This fucceeded to his 

 wifh ; the regulus difTolving quickly and copioufly. As regu- 

 lus of antimony is an expenfive preparation, he made a trial of 

 crude antimony inflead of it ; and he found that the mu- 

 riatic vapours very foon difTolved the metallic parts of it, and 

 at lafl began to decompofe the fulphur, as, on trial, he found 

 they did pure flowers of fulphur. This he judged to be of 

 little confequence to the ultimate object, as the affinity of the 

 muriatic acid to antimony is much flronger than that of the 



vitriolic. 



