264 ANTIMONY CHLORIDE 



odour and taste, insoluble in water, and known as black 

 antimony. The orange-red sulphurated antimony of the 

 B.P. is obtained by boiling black antimony with sublimed 

 sulphur and caustic soda, neutralising the solution with sul- 

 phuric acid, and washing the precipitated mixture. The 

 following sulphides are used in the arts, and have occasion- 

 ally been employed in medicine : Glass of antimony, a red, 

 transparent body, consisting of about eight parts of oxide 

 and one of sulphide ; liver of antimony, a double sulphide of 

 antimony and potassium ; and Kermes mineral, a red-brown 

 powder containing a variable proportion of oxide and 

 sulphide. 



ACTIONS AND USES. Being uncertain, irregular, and often 

 violent remedies, the antimony sulphides are now seldom 

 used in either human or veterinary medicine. Their ir- 

 regular action mainly depends on their variable composition 

 and their insolubility in water. They once had the reputa- 

 tion of being expectorant, and anthelmintic, and were given 

 to horses and cattle in doses of one to three drachms, usually 

 along with sulphur or nitre. They cause emesis in dogs. 

 The orange sulphide has been recommended for mammitis. 

 It is transformed in the stomach into the double chlorides of 

 potassium and antimony. In contagious mammitis four 

 to six drachms may be given three times a day. 



SOLUTION OF ANTIMONIOUS CHLORIDE. Liquor Antimonii 

 Chloridi. Butter of Antimony. SbCl 8 . 



When native sulphide is boiled with about five times its 

 weight of hydrochloric acid, hydrogen sulphide is evolved, 

 and the chloride remains in solution a transparent, yellow- 

 red liquid, with a specific gravity of T47. The colour 

 darkens by exposure, depending upon oxidation of the iron 

 chloride, which is sometimes added intentionally. Contain- 

 ing excess of hydrochloric acid, it has an acid reaction, and 

 fumes on exposure to air. Addition of water separates a 

 white precipitate of basic oxy-chloride (SbOCl), which, if 

 persistently washed, yields the oxide. The true butter of 

 antimony a hard, white, crystalline, fusible solid is got by 

 evaporating and then distilling the commercial solution. 



