Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 333 



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According to Bucholz it contains 4-i per cent, of dry muriatic acid j 

 according to Grouvelle it consists of 7 atoms oxide united to one 

 atom of chloride of antimony *. Dumas f gives as its composition 

 82 of chloride and 18 of oxide of antimony; while Mr. Phillips found 

 it to contain 78 per cent, of muriatic acid, and 92*2 [92*45] of oxide 

 of antimony, or to consist of one atom of acid to 5-^ of the base J. 

 From results so discordant, it is impossible to draw any conclusion in 

 regard to the true nature of the compound, or whether there be any 

 constant and definite compound of the chloride with the oxide of 

 antimony. That oxides and chlorides do unite there is now no doubt, 

 but the difficulty of obtaining these compounds in a crystalline form 

 has hitherto prevented their composition from being investigated so 

 accurately as their interesting nature requires. 



" When the powder of algaroth is first thrown down, it forms a 

 beautiful white precipitate ; but if allowed to stand some time, or be 

 collected on the filter, it not unfrequently changes in appearance, 

 becomes granular, and assumes a yellowish- grey colour. In this 

 state acid is separated from it by washing with water, but its white- 

 ness is not restored. These grains sometimes possess a slight de- 

 gree of lustre j they are minute crystals. 



f* If an acid chloride of antimony, prepared by digesting muriatic 

 acid on the sulphuret or by any other process, be diluted with 20 or 

 30 times its volume of water, and set aside, the light white powder 

 which at first falls gradually contracts in bulk, and at the end of two 

 or three days has nearly all assumed the crystalline form. These 

 crystals are grey, yellowish-grey, or, if the chloride has been prepared 

 from the sulphuret and any sulphuretted hydrogen is present, of an 

 orange-red colour. They exhibit occasionally a high degree of lustre, 

 and, according to the measurement of Professor Miller of Cambridge, 

 are oblique rectangular prisms, of which the terminal obtuse solid 

 angles are replaced by planes. The crystals are generally micro- 

 scopic, but from their brilliancy the faces are very distinctly observa- 

 ble. Only on two occasions have I observed them form radiated 

 needles, brilliant, almost pure white, and half an inch in length ; the 

 method above described, however, seldom fails to give distinct cry- 

 stals of a less size. 



" When these crystals are washed with water, their brilliancy di- 

 minishes from the surface undergoing decomposition ; they must 

 therefore be collected and dried on bibulous paper without washing. 

 That these constitute a definite compound there can be no doubt. 



" At a temperature considerably above,212° Fahrenheit they lose 

 no weight; further heated in a close vessel they decrepitate and give 

 off white fumes of chloride of antimony ; 31 *86 grains heated to red- 

 ness in a glass tube with twice its weight of dry carbonate of soda, 

 and the gas given off made to pass over chloride of calcium, gave only 

 • 1 2 of moisture = 0'38 per cent. This small quantity of moisture was 

 obviously hygrometric either in the soda or the salt. 



* Gmelin's Handbuch, I. p. 985. + Traite de Chimie, iii. p. 399. 



X Turner's Chemistry, p. 697. [Mr. Phillips's analysis, will be found in 

 Phil. Mag. and Annals, N.S., vol. viii. p. 408.— Edit.] 



