214- YELLOW ORPIMENT. llEALGAR. 
It is employed as a poison for rats and mice; and, 
diluted with water, it attracts and poisons flies, whence 
it is sometimes called by the French, poudre a mouches. 
There cannot, however, be too great caution used 
either in the preparation, or in the application, of this 
fatal poison. 
243. YELLOJF ORPIMENT is a mineral substance of 
lemon colour, which consists of arsenic in combination with 
sulphur ; and in the proportion of about fifty-seven parts of 
the former and forty-three of the latter. 
It is about thrice as heavy as water; and is found both in 
a massive and crystallized state; but the crystals are so con- 
fused that their figures cannot easily be determined. 
The orpiment of commerce is an artificial produc- 
tion, and is chiefly imported from different parts of the 
Levant. The Turks, and other Orientals, use it in the 
depilatories which serve to render bald the top of the 
head. A very beautiful, but fugitive pigment, called 
King's yellow, is prepared from this mineral ; and other 
preparations of orpiment are occasionally used by 
painters, and also by dyers and calico printers. The 
whole of these, however, are extremely poisonous. 
Orpiment is found in a natural state, along with cop- 
per and other ores, in Natolia, Servia, Hungary, 
Turkey, and some other countries. 
244. REALGAR, or RED ORPIMENT, is a mineral 
substance of red or orange colour, which consists of arsenic in 
combination with sulphur; and in the proportion of seventy- 
jive parts of the former, and twenty-five of the latter. 
It is somewhat more than three times as heavy as water; 
and occurs sometimes in a crystallized, and sometimes in a 
massive or disseminated state. 
This production, which, by ignorant persons, is not 
unfrequently mistaken for red lead, is in considerable 
request by painters, dyers, and calico printers. In China 
it is manufactured into small pagodas and other orna- 
ments. And the Chinese form it into medical cups, 
and use lemon juice which has stood for some hours in 
