352 Dr. Vest on Vestium. [May, 
know, peculiar to it; but the oxide of cobalt formed in the air 
is not red. I believe that the oxides of metals formed in the air, 
in acids, and in alkalies, may be distinguished from each other. 
All the oxides of vestium are white, as is the case with the 
oxides of antimony and zinc. Their colour is not altered by 
exposing them to a red heat, when they are quite free from mix- 
ture. A mixture of cobalt or nickel makes them blackish. 
Borax is not coloured by oxide of vestium ; but becomes often 
dull and opaque ; because it dissolves the oxide of this metal 
with difficulty. The oxide of vestium when fused with saltpetre 
remains white. After being strongly heated to redness, it is 
with difficulty affected by acids. 
C.— Reduction fo the metallic State. 
I have attempted in vain to reduce oxide of vestium by simply 
mixing it with charcoal and heating; though I exposed it to the 
temperature successively of 50°, 100°, and 140°, of Wedgewood’s 
pyrometer. The oxide came out of the furnace simply aggluti- 
nated, and had the appearance of pumice. 
I then added a mixture of borax, porcelain, earth, and quartz, 
to assist as a flux, and exposed the oxide to a heat of 120° 
Wedgewood. The flux united with the oxide, and formed an 
opaque milk-white glass. 
But when oxide of vestium is mixed with arsenic, it is reduced 
at a moderate temperature. The small regulus had the appear- 
ance of iron, was brittle, and had a fine granular texture. When 
dissolved in nitric acid, and freed from arsenic and all other 
metals with which it was mixed, it gave the white salt which I 
had previously obtained from the ore. 
The peculiar ore of vestium is unknown to me. In the nickel 
ore of Schladming, which is of a very compound nature, it 
seems to be only mechanically mixed; for the proportion of it 
obtained in different irials was very different. 
Some additional Experiments on the Reduction of Vestium. 
I took the white flocks separated by agitation from the nickel 
crystals, and digested them for 24 hours in carbonate of potash. 
Though by this .process | by no means succeeded in separating 
the whole of the sulphuric acid, I made the following experiment 
with the white matter that remained. After filtration and edul- 
coration, I put the flocks into muriatic acid, and poured into 
the liquid an excess of carbonate of ammonia, to remove any 
nickel which might be present. I then triturated the white mass 
with half its weight of oxide ofarsenic and a little charcoal, put 
the mixture into a charcoal crucible, which I enclosed in a 
hessian crucible surrounded with charcoal powder, and exposed 
it for an hour to a heat between 60° and 70° Wedgewood. A 
part only of the mass was reduced to a regulus, which had under- 
gone complete fusion. The remainder formed a whitish, very 
