462 Berzelius ona new Mineral Body, [JuNneg, 
mixed with it. The sulphur prepared during winter cannot be 
washed without considerable expense. It is, therefore, melted 
without depriving it of the acid with which it is impregnated. 
When the fused mass is broken. and exposed for some days to 
the air, very acid drops exude from it, containing sulphuric acid, 
arsenic acid, and sulphates of iron and tin. 
When this distilled sulphur is employed to fabricate sulphuric 
acid by combustion, it deposits in the bottom of the leaden 
chamber a reddish powder. This circumstance had been long 
observed by M. Bjuggren, who was possessor of the sulphuric 
acid manufactory at Gripsholm. He found that the deposite was 
not formed when any other kind of sulphur was employed; and 
having been informed by a chemist that the red matter must 
contain arsenic, he gave over employing the sulphur of Fahlun. 
Since the manufactory was purchased by MM. Gahn, Eggertz, 
and myself, we have always burned the sulphur of Fahlun. The 
red sediment which formed in the liquid acid always remained 
at the bottom of the chamber, and had increased so much in 
quantity as to form’a stratum about a line ia thickness. The 
operation by which the sulphur is acidified in this manufactory 
differs from that which is usually employed in this respect, that 
the sulphur, is not mixed with nitrate of potash. Flat glass 
plates are put at the bottom of the cistern containing nitric acid. 
The sulphurous acid by decomposing the nitric acid produces 
the nitrous gas necessary for the complete acidification of the 
sulphur. This. modification of the process was introduced by 
Mr. Gustavus Schwartz, when, after the diminution of the size 
of the leaden. chamber, the ordinary method failed entirely in 
producing sulphuric.acid. The method of Mr. Schwartz is more 
expensive ; but it produces a, purer acid; for while we ‘find five 
or six per cent. of foreign substances in English sulphuric acid, 
that of Gripsholm never contains more than two per cent. and 
that merely sulphate of lead. 
In the glass vessels which contain the nitric acid, we find, 
after the complete decomposition of the nitric acid, a concen- 
trated sulphuric acid, at the bottom of which is deposited a red 
or sometimes a brownish powder. This powder excited’ our 
attention, and induced us to examine its nature more particu- 
larly. The quantity of it, resulting from the. combustion of 
250 killogrammes of sulphur, did not exceed three grammes. 
The principal part of it was sulphur: it took fire, and burned 
like that body; but it left a bulky ash, which, when heated 
before the blow-pipe, gave out a strong smell of: horseradish, 
analogous to that, which Klaproth says is produced when tellu- 
rium is treated in the same way. After the smell ceased-to be 
produced, there remained a metallic globule, which was merely 
lead. To separate the tellurium supposed to be contained in it, 
the reddish matter was dissolved in nitro-muriatic acid. It left 
a quantity of'sulphur undissolved. The liquid, being mixed with 
