402 
Tin. 
substance, (in the usual way of preparing it) consisting 
chiefly of cinnabar, of muriated ammonia, and some mu- 
riat of tin, from which by a fresh sublimation an addi- 
tional quantity of the aurum musivum may be obtained. 
This latter appears to be contained in the first sublimate, 
and indeed may often be found interspersed in it in shin- 
ing hexagonal plates, but as aurum musivum alone can- 
not be sublimed, this portion is supposed to be formed 
by the muriat of tin and sulphur combining in the act of 
volatilization. 
The decompositions and changes that take place in 
the preparation of aurum musivum with mercury, tin, 
muriat of ammonia, and sulphur, are numerous and some- 
what complicated. The principal ones appear to be the 
following : the mercury at first seems nearly passive in 
the operation, and serves merely to divide the tin, and ren- 
der it easily reducible to powder, but when the heat is in- 
creased the mercury volatilizes and unites with the sul- 
phur into cinnabar. The tin is certainly first acted on by 
the sal ammoniac decomposing the water which it con- 
tains, the oxygen of which it absorbs, and the oxyd of 
tin thus produced is immediately dissolved by the muri- 
atic acid of the sal ammoniac forming a muriat of tin. 
This process sets at liberty two very volatile substances, 
viz. the hydrogen of the water decomposed, and the am- 
monia of the salt, both of which, in volatilizing carry up 
a sufficient quantity of the sulphur present to constitute 
the hydro- sulphuret of ammonia, which flies off in white 
fumes in the common way of proceeding, or, as already 
mentioned, may be collected in a receiver joined to the 
apparatus. 
The ingredients in the matrass are now changed, more 
or less completely, to muriat of tin, mercury, and sulphur; 
and as the heat is increased all the mercury and part of 
the sulphur sublime, and unite into cinnibar ; the muriat 
