Combinations of different Metals and Chlorine. 189 
When the butter of antimony is decomposed by a suffici- 
ently large quantity of the hydrosulphuret of potash, that 
compound is formed which is commonly called the golden 
sulphur of antimony, and which when decomposed by heat, I 
have found to afford merely water and sulphuret of anti- 
mony.* 
To ascertain the proportion of antimony in the butter of 
antimony 60.5 grains of this substance colourless and crystal- 
lized, weighed in water, were heated in a solution of hydro- 
sulphuret of potash. The whole of the antimony was dissolved, 
and the hydrosulphuret of potash being in excess, there was 
no precipitation on cooling. The solution was decomposed by 
muriatic acid, and the golden sulphur thus thrown down was 
collected on a filter well washed and dried ; heated slowly to 
redness in a glass tube, steam in plenty was disengaged with 
very slight traces of sulphur, and sulphuret of antimony re- 
mained, which fused into one mass weighed 45 grains. Ac- 
cording to the experiments of Proust, which I have repeated 
with the same result, sulphuret of antimony contains 74.1 per 
cent, of metal. Hence 45 grains of sulphuret or the 60.5 of 
butter of antimony, from which the sulphuret was procured, 
must contain 33. 35 of metal; and considering the remainder 
27.15 of the 60.5 as the proportion of chlorine, 100 of the 
* These results appear to me to demonstrate the truth of M. Proust’s opinion, 
that the golden sulphur is a hydrosulphuretted oxide of antimony. From my expe- 
riments the only difference of composition between kermes mineral and the preceding 
compound, seems to consist in the former containing a smaller proportion of sulphu- 
retted hydrogene than the latter, for I have obtained by the decomposition of kermes 
mineral, by heat, a compound of sulphuret of antimony and protoxide, and I have 
converted kermes into the golden sulphur by means of water impregnated with sul- 
phuretted hydrogene. 
