[ 8 S9 ] 
texture are quite deftroyed ; infomuch that aqua re- 
gia, which adts fo readily on crude antimony, or its 
regulus, will not touch thofe, much lefs diffolve 
them : an argument, that the metallic nature of the 
antimony is greatly deftroyed in thefe preparations. 
And though they are both reducible, by a proper 
flux, to regulus again, yet never without the addi- 
tion of fome phlogifton, or fulphureous fubftance. 
And thus indeed may any calx of antimony, pre- 
pared in the humid or dry way, be converted into 
regulus by fluxing in clofe veflfels with fome inflam- 
mable ingredient : which fhews, that both the form 
and virtue of the regulus depend, in a great meafure, 
on the fulphureous principle, as well as the metallic 
earth. I know not whether it may be here worth 
noting by the way, that antimonial calx, reduced 
with mineral fulphur, takes a flriated form; but 
with an animal or vegetable phlogifton the h tmino t ft) 
appearance of common regulus of antimony. Is 
this from the vitriolic acid only ? Mercurius vits, 
fluxed per fe , hath alfo this aculeated or needle-like 
appearance : whence ? 
This likewife is really the cafe in the moft per- 
fect metallic bodies, which loofe their metalleity, as 
Becher calls it, as malleability, and other metallic 
properties, by an intire deftrudtion of their internal 
metallic or combining fulphur, as is feen when metals 
are calcined by the burning-glafs, or an intenfe culi- 
nary fire. This internal fulphur is probably what 
Albertus Magnus means by the humidum undtuofum 
fubtile, which, he fays, is the prima materia me- 
tallorum, and is intirely analogous to the combin- 
ing fulphur, or oil of vegetables, which binds the 
y 0^2 • very 
uimtrui 
