230 
RESEARCH FOR ARSENIC AND ANTIMONY. 
Men who should have a better knowledge of the subject, 
asserted that there was no novelty in the announcement of 
this universal presence of arsenic in the so-called purest 
forms of copper. The untruthfulness of this statement can 
only be appreciated by those who have taken pains to refer 
to the highest chemical authorities. It was known that 
arsenic was associated with the ores of copper; but there 
was a general belief, from the known volatility of arsenic (at 
380 c ), and the repeated meltings which copper underwent in 
the process of refining (being each time heated to 1996°), that 
the whole of this arsenic was evolved; and that if it any¬ 
where existed, it would be only in the coarse kinds of unre¬ 
fined or commercial copper. Berzelius (‘Traite de Chimie/ 
tome iii, p. 124), in an elaborate description of the properties 
of this metal and the mode of extracting it, makes no refer¬ 
ence whatever to even the possible presence of arsenic as a 
contaminating ingredient in copper. Dumas, in his ‘ Traite 
de Chimie appliquee aux Arts 5 (tome iii, page 472, et seq.), 
in giving a complete history of this metal, speaks of its being 
contaminated with lead and antimony, but he does not men¬ 
tion arsenic as an impurity. Among other works of great 
chemical authority may be enumerated those of Despretz, 
‘Elemens de Chimie, 5 i, 428; ‘lire’s Dictionary, 5 art. 
“Copper; 55 Mitscherlich/ Lehrbuch der Chemie,’ ii, 187; 
.Graham’s ‘Elements of Chemistry/ p. 579; Turner’s ‘Ele¬ 
ments of Chemistry, 5 edited by Liebig and Gregory, 1847, 
p. 509; 4 Elements of Chemistry, 5 by Sir Robert Kane, 1849, 
p. 552; Braude’s ‘ Manual of Chemistry/ 1848, i, p. 820 ; Reg- 
nault, ‘ Cours Elementaire de Chimie, 5 1851, tome iii, p. 271; 
Gmelin’s ‘Handbook of Chemistry/ 1851, vol. v, p. 401 ; 
Abel and Bloxam’s ‘Handbook of Chemistry/ 1854, p. 409; 
Pereira’s ‘Elements of Materia Medica/ 1854, vol. i, p. 867. 
In these works of authority there is no reference to even the 
occasional or possible contamination of refined or any other 
kind of copper with arsenic; and two of the authors last 
mentioned, who are among the most recent writers on the 
science, state distinctly that “the best specimens of com¬ 
mercial copper are nearly pure; they contain only traces of 
iron. 55 (Abel and Bloxam, op. cit., p. 409.) Dr. Miller, in his 
which, up io that time, it had been customary to test it, namely, by boiling 
it in diluted hydrochloric acid, but he had not until then looked for arsenic 
in its substance. This statement, showing the candour and honesty of the 
witness, was well received by the Court, and it did not subject this gentle¬ 
man to that unlimited abuse which, on this side of the Tweed, it appears 
is customary, among a certain class of barristers, to shower upon scientific 
witnesses. 
