Antimony with Chlorine and Sulphur. 125 
moderate heat. It attracts the humidity of the air, and is con- 
verted into a liquid similar to an emulsion *: 
Treated with water it changes, without giving out heat, 
into hydrochloric acid and a compound of the oxide and chlo- 
ride of antimony. This white powder, which is precipitated 
by mixing the chloride with water, is entirely yolatilized when 
heated by a blowpipe in a little matrass; it Contains therefore, 
neither antimonious acid nor antimonic acid: but as this chlo- 
ride of antimony is converted by water into hydrochloric acid 
and oxide of antimony, it must correspond to them in compo- 
sition; and as oxide of antimony contains 3 atoms of oxygen, 
the antimony must be combined with 3 atoms of chlorine in the 
solid chloride of antimony, or contain 
Antimony .. 2... 5485 
Chlorine ...... 45°15 
100-00 
Yet as Dr. John Davy’s analysis of this solid chloride of an- 
timony gives a different result+, I analysed it in the following 
manner. I poured water ona quantity of the chloride, and 
added tartaric acid, until the liquid was perfectly clear and 
ceased to become milky by adding afresh a large quantity of 
water. I then passed a current of sulphuretted hydrogen 
through the liquid, till sulphuret of antimony was-no longer 
precipitated. This sulphuret, which was orange-coloured, was 
washed on the filtre, weighed and dried, then melted in a glass 
tube ; it gave a black sulphuret of antimony, and only traces 
of sulphur: it was therefore the sulphuret of antimony con- 
taining 3 atoms of sulphur, or precisely what ought to be 
formed under these circumstances. As, however, it contained 
traces of an excess of sulphur, in consequence of the sulphu- 
retted hydrogen which had been passed for a very long time 
through the liquid, I heated a part of this sulphuret in a bulb 
blown in the middle of a glass tube, and passed over it a cur- 
rent of hydrogen dried by chloride of calcium. The sulphu- 
ret of antimony was decomposed; and there was obtained an- 
timony, sulphuretted hydrogen, and traces of sulphur. 
he liquor, separated from the sulphuret of antimony, was 
slowly heated, to drive off the sulphuretted hydrogen, but not 
* The ordinary butter of antimony in pharmacy, which forms a clear 
liquid, is not a solution of the solid chloride of antimony in a small quantity 
of water, but in muriatic acid; for the Pharmacopeeias prescribe for its pre- 
paration a greater quantity of acid than is necessary for the formation of the 
solid chloride, 
+ According to Dr. Davy, the chloride contains : 
Antimony... ... 60°42 
Chlorine ...... 39°58 
the 
