The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony. 101 



k(V /"and repeat this till all the acidity is 

 ,> washed out, and there remains a sweet 

 Land pleasant powder.* 



This sweet powder you should pound 



in a hot marble or glass mortar, place in 

 cucurbit, pour on it best highly rectified 

 j spirit of wine till it covers the powder 

 I to the height of three inches ; expose 

 > to gently digestive heat, as above, and 



there will be extracted a beautiful red 

 1 Tincture with an earthy sediment at the 

 , bottom. 



* The Author's directions are correct, but if you have 

 much extract, you must take a large vessel ; yet the vessel 

 should not be larger than the quantity of the extract requires 

 else the fire necessary to bring about the distillation will 

 h^ve to be fiercer than the Tincture can bear. When two- 

 thirds of the Tincture have evaporated, change the vessel, 

 and distil the remaining Tincture in a smaller vessel, till 

 there is left a thickish paste. If you drain the powder 

 altogether of moisture, it will be burned. The method by 

 which you may know whether the powder is as sweet and 

 free from acid taste as it should be, is to taste a little of the 

 water which you have drained off by evaporation. If you 

 are not careful, however, you may still make a mistake, and 

 spoil everything. For you must distinguish carefully between 

 the acidity of the vinegar and the acidity of the Antimony ; 

 else you may go on with the distillation after all the acidity 

 of the vinegar has been removed, and distil all the acidity, 

 i.e., all the strength out of the Antimony. 



