M I N E R A I. O G Y. 
.2oy 
a. Its colour is white and fhining, a little 
darker than that of filver. 
b. It is fluid in the cold, and divifible by the 
leafl: force j but, as it only flicks to a few 
bodies, to which it has an attradion, it is 
faid that it does not wet. 
€, It is volatile in the fire. 
d. Its weight is next to that of the gold, vizJ 
to water, as 13,593 : : 1000, 
It attrads the other femi- metals and me- 
tals, and unites with them ail, except co- 
balt and nickel, with which it cannot by 
any means yet known be made to mix. 
This union is called an amalgamation. 
This amalgamation, or mixtion of metallic 
bodies, according to the readinefs with 
which they unite or mix, is in the follow- 
ing progreflion, viz. gold, fiiver, leaci^ 
fcn, zink, bifmuth, copper, iron, and 
the regulus of antimony : But the three 
latter however do not very readily amalga- 
mate. The iron requires a folution of the 
vitriol of iron, as a medium to promote the 
union. 
/•It diflTolves in the fpirit of nitre, out of 
which it is precipitated by a volatile alcali, 
and the cornmon fait, in form of a white 
powder*, but if a fixed alcali is ufed, into a 
yellow pov/der or calx. 
It diflblves in the oil of vitriol by a ftrong 
boiling. 
b. It is not afiedled by the acid of common 
fait, unlefs it be previoufly diflblved by 
other acids ; in which cafe only they unite 
with one another, and may be fublimed to- 
gether, the which fubiimation is a flrong 
poifon. 
> It 
