403 
Tin » 
of tin Is decomposed by another part of the sulphur, the 
muriatic acid is volatilized, taking with it a portion of the 
tin, and finally the remaining oxyd of tin and the rest of 
the sulphur, unite to form the aurum musivum that re- 
mains at the bottom of the vessel 
It is to be observed that the sole use of the mercury in 
this mixture is to enable the tin to be reduced to powder, 
so that the mixture may be simplified by omitting the 
mercury, provided the tin is reduced to powder, or other- 
wise divided. The ammonia of the sal-ammoniac is also 
entirely superfluous, and even the sole use of the muriatic 
acid is to enable the tin to oxydate itself by the decompo- 
sition of water, which it affects by the resulting affinity of 
oxyd of tin for muriatic acid. So that in fact the only ne- 
cessary ingredients for aurum musivum appear to be oxyd 
of tin and sulphur, the latter in considerably larger pro- 
portion than it exists in the black sulphuret. 
These observations will be explained and illustrated by 
a short abstract of a variety of other processes given by 
different chemists, by which aurum musivum may be 
made. 
The three following are given by Mr. Woolfe. 
Take 10 oz. of black sulphuret of tin, (formed by sa- 
turating melted tin with sulphur) mix it with 4 oz. of sul- 
phur and 2 oz. of muriatic acid, calcine the mixture, and 
heat the residue in a matrass in the usual way. This 
gives a tolerably good aurum musivum. 
2. Take 4 oz. of tin, saturate with sulphur, powder it 
well, and mix it with 2 oz. of sulphur and 1 oz. of crys- 
tallized muriat of tin. Calcine and heat as in the last 
process. This gives 6 1-2 oz. of a very fine aurum mu- 
sivum. 
3. Mix 10 oz. of black sulphuret of tin with 16 oz. of 
corrosive mercurial muriat, put it into a retort with a re- 
ceiver adapted to it, and apply a heat for six hours, at 
Vol. III. 3 D 
