TESTING FOR ANTIMONY AND ARSENIC. 455 
volume of ‘ Guy’s Hospital Reports’ appeared, with the altered 
one since. 
It seems that the Palmer trial was the first criminal case in 
which Reinsch’s process had been used for separating anti- 
mony from the tissues; and in that instance Dr. Taylor 
heated the copper, on which he had got the antimony depo- 
sited, with nitrate of soda in a platinum crucible, thereby 
converting the antimony into antimoniate of soda, which he 
dissolved or diffused in w r ater, acidulated with hydrochloric 
acid ; and he then precipitated by sulphuretted hydrogen ; 
but, instead of obtaining a precipitate of a decided orange-red 
colour, which is desirable, as characteristic of the pure sul- 
phuret of antimony, he obtained one of a reddish brown 
colour, undoubtedly the sulphuret of antimony mixed with 
some sulphuret of copper; and, therefore, not so satisfactory 
as an orange precipitate would have been in confirmation of 
the results of the other tests which he applied.* Aware of 
this, I was induced to pursue another course in testing the 
antimonial deposit I obtained on copper in a case tried at the 
Liverpool Assizes in August last (Regina v. McMullen). And, 
as my proceedings in that inquiry have not been published, a 
somewhat detailed account of a few of the experiments 
may here be acceptable, more particularly as application 
has been made to me by several scientific inquirers for in- 
formation as to the method I pursued on the occasion. 
In one experiment I dissolved 7 555 grains of the liver, by 
boiling it in diluted pure hydrochloric acid ; and in the hot 
solution I immersed bright sheet copper, the surface of which 
was about twenty-two square inches. The copper was kept 
in the hot solution for four hours, when it was found to have 
acquired a comparatively thick coating of a violet lead- 
coloured metal. It was then washed and dried ; and, on 
bending it, some of the coating cracked and fell off it. The 
quantity which thus fell off weighed a quarter of a grain. I 
dissolved this quarter of a grain in nitro-hydrochloric acid, 
and evaporated the solution to dryness ; I dissolved the dry 
* There was no sulphuret of copper mixed with the sulphuret of anti- 
mony. The liquid was specially tested for copper by ammonia and ferro- 
cyanide of potassium, but there was not the least indication of the presence 
of that metal. The sulphuret of antimony was mixed with sulphur ; its 
real nature was not determined by colour only, but by its solubility in hydro- 
chloric acid, and subsequent precipitation, as white oxychloride on the addi- 
tion of this acid solution to water. Hence although the admixture of sul- 
phur is objectionable, the presence of antimony was clearly and distinctly 
demonstrated by the properties of the precipitate. It will be found better 
to use a porcelain capsule for the deflagration. — (Note by Dr. Alfred 
Taylor.) 
