[ «35 ] 
mac, whatever may have been boaded by the alchy- 
miflical vifionaries. The exceeding fmali quantity, 
that Monfieur Geoffroy fancied he extracted from it, 
could never be done again by the very fame procefs, 
materials, and the utmofl care. Befides, if the regu- 
hne part of antimony was really mercurial, how 
comes the mercury not to fly off intirely in a ftrong 
calcination, efpecially in fuch an intenfe heat as that 
of the burning-glafs ? And if it doth fo, as fome 
have afferted, how comes the remaining calx, after 
fuffering fuch a violent action of the fire, to be fo 
readily reduced to its prifline reguline metallic date, 
merely by the addition of any common phlogidon, 
as fulphur, charcoal -dud, animal fat, or the like? 
But indeed mercury in no form will dand fuch an 
intenfe heat, but is foon totally evaporated ; and fo 
would the regulus, if mercurial ; the calx of which 
however, after having flood this fiery trial, is, as I 
faid, eafily revived into a proper regulus. Pure an- 
timony differs from arfenic in not having the leafl 
garlick-fmell, peculiar to arfenic when burnt. Nor 
is the antimonial regulus at all foluble in water, as 
arfenic, nor in oil of tartar per deliquium , in which 
however white arfenic almofl intirely diffolves. More- 
over the conflituent particles of arfenic and anti- 
mony are of quite different figures ; the former re- 
fembling two quadrilateral pyramids, join’d bafe to 
bafe ; the latter like needles, as it were, and this par- 
ticularly in the minuted divifions of antimony by 
folution, fublimation, &c. as is remarkably feen in 
the flowers of antimony per fe, and in the folution 
of its regulus in wine, when viewed by a microfcope 
on a flip of glafs, or the like: nay, when flibium is 
c N 2 revived 
