342 Simple method for the 



those circumstances in which a supply of apparatus is not 

 procurable, and the operator has little reliance on his own 

 skill and experience. 



Process. — Any soft solids existing in the mixture having 

 been broken down, as in the process for arsenic and mercury, 

 and the whole brought to a proper degree of liquidity by 

 distilled water, it is to be thrown upon a calico strainer, 

 and hydrochloric acid added in excess to the clear liquid,* 

 which is then to be raised to the boiling point, pure copper 

 turnings introduced, and the whole boiled for a quarter of an 

 hour. 



The copper is then to be removed, washed with distilled 

 water, and dried. If antimony had been present, the copper 

 will be found covered with a grey deposit, scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable from that of arsenic, and like it, having a violet 

 hue when in extremely minute quantity. The coated cop- 

 per is then to be introduced into one end of a tube of about 

 one-third of an inch bore, five or six inches long, and open at 

 both ends. The copper is then to be raised to a full red-heat 

 by means of a spirit lamp, and the tube inclined at an angle 

 of about eighty degrees, the empty end being raised, so 

 that a current of air may be drawn over the heated metals : 

 the tube should be kept in this position for a quarter of 

 an hour, when it will be found that the antimony has become 

 oxydized, and that, at a distance of a few lines above the 

 copper, a deposit of white oxyde of antimony has been formed. 

 The portion of the tube containing the oxyde may then be 

 filed off, and boiled in a solution of tartaric acid, by which 

 the oxyde will be dissolved out. To the solution thus formed, 

 the liquid tests for antimony may be applied, and the charac- 



* The addition of hydrochloric acid to the antiraonial solution is generally 

 followed by a precipitation of the white oxychloride (Sb C13 -f- 3 Sb 03) 

 Berzelius. This change, however, does not interfere with the success of the 

 process, as this precipitate is completely decomposed by the copper. 



