76 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



(ECONOMICAL PREPARATION OF OXIDE OF ANTIMONY. 

 BY M. E. G. HORNUNG. 



The author states, that M. Froderking having published a process 

 for the preparation of oxide of antimony by means of sulphuric acid, 

 he tried whether the same process would not succeed with replacing 

 antimony by the sulphuret. He mixed in an iron vessel fifteen parts 

 of sulphuret of antimony, in very fine powder, with thirty-six parts 

 of sulphuric acid, and exposed the mixture during a whole night to 

 a gentle heat. The mixture at first thickened, and being frequently 

 stirred, it afterwards became liquid on raising the temperature. 



Eventually the mass became whitish, some sulphur fused and se- 

 parated, and a large quantity of sulphurous acid was disengaged ; 

 the mixture was heated, and stirred frequently as long as the disen- 

 gagement of sulphurous acid and the combustion of the sulphur con- 

 tinued. When no other vapour than that of sulphuric acid was 

 formed, water was gradually added, and the mass was washed to 

 remove the free sulphuric acid. The subsulphate of antimony was 

 decomposed by carbonate of soda, and the oxide obtained washed : 

 fifteen parts of sulphate [sulphuret ?] of antimony yielded thirteen 

 parts of oxide of a greenish-white colour, which, with the exception 

 of some impurity, dissolved in tartaric acid. This process is the most 

 oeconomical for the oxide intended for the preparation of emetic 

 tartar. — Joum. de Ph. et de Ch., Mai 1848. 



[I may remark, that the use of antimony and sulphuric acid for 

 preparing the oxide of antimony was proposed and published by me 

 in 1811, in my Experimental Examination of the Phai'macopccia Lon~ 

 dinensis. The late Dr. Babington suggested soon afterwards to me 

 to try as an improvement (and it is a great one) the use of sulphuret 

 instead of metallic antimony. Although I did not at the time try 

 the proposed alteration, I know it has since been adopted on a con- 

 siderable scale, it having occurred as an improvement to two other 

 parties with whom I am acquainted. I will only add, that there is no 

 use in gently heating the mixture for a long time ; it may be boiled 

 to dryness at once, and the residue is fit for preparing tartarized an- 

 timony when merely washed with water, and without using any car- 

 bonate of soda. — R. P.] 



ON THE CHRYSOTIL FROM THE VOSGES. BY M. DELESSE. 



The serpentine of the Vosges, and especially that of Goujot near 

 Eloyes, is intersected by a great number of veins which penetrate the 

 rock in every direction. These veins are frequently microscopic, and 

 generally are at most only from one to two centimetres in thickness ; 

 they are filled by an asbestiform substance, and which is generally 

 called asbestus, but according to M. Delesse it ought to be referred 

 to the chrysotil of M. Kobell. 



It is formed of very fine parallel fibres, which may be easily se- 

 parated. When in mass it is translucent, and the fibres are trans- 

 lucent when isolated ; by exposure to the air they become opake 



