ME. G. GOEE ON THE PEOPEETIES OE ELECTEO-DEPOSITED ANTIMONY. 331 
127. The substance formed in either of these solutions of antimony may be viewed as 
a feeble chemical compound of metallic antimony with a salt of antimony : that it is 
not a purely mechanical mixture is rendered very probable by the fact of its powder not 
reddening moistened litmus paper, especially in the case of that obtained from the 
bromide solution, which contains as much as 20 per cent, of saline and acid matter, 
whereas immediately after the gradual change has occurred it has the power of redden- 
ing htmus strongly (101.), and the salt of antimony contained in it may be much more 
readUy extracted by dilute hydrochloric acid (83.); these facts also indicate that the 
change is, at least in part, a case of chemical decomposition, the substances remaining 
together after the decomposition in a state of mechanical mixture. 
128. The compound deposited is evidently not a direct result of electrolysis, other- 
wise it would be deposited in the proportion of its electro-chemical equivalent ; nor is it 
a definite chemical compound, because there is no equivalent or atomic proportion 
between the quantity of metallic antimony and that of the salt with which it is com- 
bmed, and because the proportions of these two ingredients are in each case somewhat 
variable. 
129. The decomposition of these deposits, like that of peroxide of hydrogen, is 
attended by evolution of much heat ; it cannot, however, like the decomposition of that 
substance, be 'viewed as a result of a tendency of the separated ingredients to assume the 
gaseous or even the liquid state, because the compound set free is in each case in a 
nearly solid condition, but must be refeiTed to some other and at present unknown 
cause. 
130. The union of the nascent antimony -with the salt of antimony is e-vidently 
dependent upon the rate of deposition ; for when the speed of deposition in the chlo- 
ride solution fell below about 0*75 or 0-5 grain per square inch per hour, the antimony 
lost its power of combining -with the antimonial salt, and was deposited alone in the 
grey or crystalline state (110.). It is also dependent upon the temperature of the liquid 
(11.), and upon the proportions of the ingredients of the solution (9.). 
131. Numerous and varied electrolytic experiments were made with solutions of 
arsenic, and small portions of scaly deposit were obtained from the aqueous fluoride, 
which exhibited in a comparatively feeble and indistinct degree (like the third variety 
of active antimony) a similar thermic property to that manifested by electro-deposited 
antimony. 
