On Metallic Sidphurets^ 211 



hot reached the term of saturation of which they are 

 thought to be capable, ought to be considered otherwise 

 than terminated combinations ; but to elucidate my idea, I 

 have denoted these solutions as I should denote those of 

 sugar and water: it is water + 1 + 2 + 3,.&c. of sugar. 



I cannot see, indeed, that one can form clearer ideas of 

 the solutions of sulphuret of antimony in its oxide. All 

 chemists have hitherto thought that this glass, this liver, 

 this crocus, were sulphurated oxides. The object of my 

 labour was to undeceive us on this point ; to show that it 

 was necessary to renounce these sulphurated oxides, which 

 we admit only on hearsay, in order to receive in their stead, 

 a new kind of combination, no doubt, but which is fully 

 proved to exist. This combination indeed is repugnant to 

 the ideas of Berthollet : he endeavours to place it in the 

 family of the oxides simply sulphurated ; but it is no less 

 certain that it exists such as I have announced it, and that 

 it has over that of sulphurated oxides, whose existence is 

 now destroyed, the advantage of giving us the most na- 

 tural solution of those thousand-and-one antimonial pro- 

 blems, the ridiculous nomenclature of "which maintained 

 the confusion of our ideas, and covered the history of an- 

 timony with profound obscurity. Berthollet adds, repeat- 

 ing my expressions : '* I do not see how this saves the 

 oxides of that metal from the suspicion of being able to 

 unite with sulphur in all doses, and without regard to the 

 invariable laws of proportion ; but he must however admit, 

 that these laws are not invariable, and must limit, his apo- 

 thegm, in regard to the proportions of the sulphuret of an- 

 timony with its oxide." 



This paragraph requires that I should divide my answer 

 into two par^s. I will then first observe, that Berthollet, 

 by introducing here the solution of sulphur in an oxide, 

 when the question is merely that of a sulphuret, changes 

 iiis subject: for the solution'of sulphur, and that of the sul- 

 phuret, in the same excipient, are no more comparable 

 than those of sulphur and sulphuric acid in the same 

 liquor. 



I will next sav in reply, that not only the solubility of a 

 metallic sulphuret in its oxide saves the latter from the 

 suspicion of being able to unite with sulphur in all doses, 

 which among us, the old disciples of Macquer,Rouelle,8cc., 

 was an error difficult to be eradicated ; but it saves it also 

 from another, which it is of no less importance to explain, 

 that of dissolving a metal, and in all sorts of proportions, 

 since indeed it.exists as such in crocus and ruby. 1 shall 

 O 2 therefore 



