C H E M 
very of this medicine is due to Glauber, who prepared 
it with fulphure of antimony, and a folution of nitre 
fixed by coal ; but he has described his procefs in an 
unintelligible manner, and almoft entirely under alche- 
miftical emblems. Lemery, who laboured much with 
antimony, and who has given us a preparation analogous 
to hermes, under another name, may be regarded as the 
true inventor. This remedy, however, was ottered to 
the public as an entirely new invention many years 
after the publication of the works of that chemill, and, 
in fail, owes its celebrity to the lingular cures effected 
by means of it in the hands of brother Simon. This 
friar had the compofition from a furgeon, named La Li- 
gerie, who was not hi'mfelf the inventor. This lad 
affirmed that he received it from Chaftenay, lieutenant in 
the army at Landau, to whom it had been communicat¬ 
ed by an apothecary, who pretended to be a difciple of 
Glauber. Dodart, then fir It phyiician to the French 
king, applied to La Ligerie to publilh the receipt of 
kerrnei , which he accordingly did in the year 1720. Le- 
mery the younger claimed the difcovery in the name of 
his father in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy, and 
with great jultice, as molt chemiits Hill make ul'e of the 
procefs invented by him for the preparation of this re¬ 
medy. 
The procefs defcribed by La Ligerie, confilts in boiling 
for two hours' a pint of rain water, with four ounces of 
the liquor of nitre fixed by charcoal, and a pound of ful¬ 
phure of antimony broken into fmall pieces. The boil¬ 
ing liquor is filtered, and the fame ere is again boiled 
with three ounces of freftj lixivium, diluted in a pint of 
rain water. Laftly, the fecond refidue is boiled a third 
time with the preceding lixivium ; two ounces of liquor 
of fixed nitre, and a pint of rain water, being added. It 
is then filtered, and the kermes fuffered to lettle, which 
being wafhed till it is inlipid, is then dried ; and, laftly, 
after fpirit of wine has been burned upon it, it is reduced 
to powder. This procefs is very long, and affords but 
a fmall quantity of kermes, not more than two or three 
drachms from a pound of fulphure of antimony. It is, 
moreover, very troublefome, on account of the long 
ebullition, and the evaporation of the water. It alfo 
occafions a lofs of more than three quarters of the ore 
of antimony, on account of the lmall quantity of alkali 
employed in proportion to that of the mineral. 
Baume, who adopted the procefs of Lemery, gives two 
methods for the ealy preparation of a large quantity of 
the red fulphurated oxyd of antimony or kermes, in a 
fhort time ; the one by the dry, the other by the humid, 
Way. According to the firft method, one pound of ful¬ 
phure of antimony is melted in a crucible, together with 
two pounds of very pure fait of tartar, and one ounce of 
fulphur, the whole being previoufly well pulverized. This 
melted mixture is poured out into an iron mortar, and is of 
a deep red colour; it is pulverized grofsly when cold, andis 
then boiled in a fufticient quantity of water. The liquor 
being filtered thro’ paper, affords a kermes of a red brown 
in cooling, which", being firft wafhed with cold and after¬ 
wards with boiling water, till it is deprived of all faline mat¬ 
ter, is dried, pulverized, and paffed through a fine fieve. 
By the humid way, according to the fame chemift, a lixi¬ 
vium of five or fix pounds of cauftic fixed alkali is boiled 
with fifteen or twenty pounds of river water. Four or five 
ounces of fulphure of antimony, previoufly levigated, is 
thrown into this boiling liquor, and the mixture being 
well agitated, and fuffered to boii for a fliort time, is 
poured on the filter. This liquor depofits much kermes 
during its cooling, which is to be wafhed in the fame 
manner as the kermes produced by fufion. According to 
Baume, this laft procefs affords twelve or thirteen ounces 
from a pound of antimony, and he affures us that the 
two kermes are perfectly fimilar. Chaptal has alfo, in 
his Elements of Chemiftry, given a method of proce¬ 
dure, which ne fays fucceeded the beft: Boil ten or twelve 
parts of the pure liquid alkali, with two parts of fulphure 
of antimony ; keep up the ebullition for half an hour ; 
Vox.. IV, No. 136. 
I S T R Y. 277 
then filtre, and a quantity of kermes is obtained by cool¬ 
ing. Digeft lome frefh alkali over the antimony, till it 
is exhauited; then wafh it, and let it dry. 
Here we fhall add the procefs of M. Deyeux, which 
will be found very ufeful to thofe who prepare kermes 
as a medicine in the large way : Take nitre fixed by 
charcoal and then purified, or carbonat of potalh, one 
part; fulphure of antimony, broken in fmall pieces, four 
parts ; filtrated river-water, eight parts. Boil the whole 
in a very clean iron veffel for a full quarter of an hour ; 
then take_ out a little of the liquor with a fpoon; if, as 
it cools, it grows turbid, and depofits a red fediment, be 
allured that it holds kermes in lolution : if otherwife, 
keep up the boiling longer, till the above appearance takes 
place; then pour the boiling liquor into a filtre of paper, laid 
on a cloth drawn moderately tight: the liquor paffes off 
very clear; but, as it gets to the bottom of the earthen 
veflel, it grows turbid, and depofits a plentiful lediment. 
Some perlons recommend the putting in water, to batten 
the reparation of the precipitate ; but, befides that it 
will not have that effeft, it has the inconvenience of 
Weakening the colour of the kermes. During the filtra¬ 
tion of the liquor, pour over the fulphure of antimony 
which remains in the veffel, either fixed nitre, or potafti 
and water, as much of either as was employed at firft 5 
and repeat the procefs as before. This may be continued 
even tour times, taking care to keep each filtration fepa- 
rate. During the fourth operation, the filtration^ of the 
two firft liquors have time to depofit the kermes they con¬ 
tained ; draw them off carefully, and boil them afrefli 
with the lulpliure ofnntimony remaining in the iron vef¬ 
lel. The lame mode is to be purfued with the third and 
fourth liquors ; but, as the water and alkali diminifh as 
the operations are multiplied, a folution ot potalh in wa¬ 
ter is to be added from time to time, obferving only that 
the potalh be not in too great quantit), for then the 
kermes would remain in folution in the liquor, and would 
not be precipitated in cooling. The filtering-papers mult 
alio be renewed frequently, for they loon clog up : re¬ 
turn the matter they are covered witlrinto the iron veffel. 
The kermes depefited in each earthen pan Ihould be 
kept feparate till the defired quantity is obtained ; then 
you have only to leparate the alkali, which Hill keeps it 
moift, and to proceed to entire deficcation. For this- 
purpofe, having drawn off', with all poilible care, the 
little fluid which remains floating, pour into the precipi¬ 
tate a great quantity of clear river-water, cold; let it 
fettle, then draw it off, and pour on frefh water; continue 
the walhing till the water has no longer an alkaline tafte; 
then give it a final walhing with hot water. The preci¬ 
pitate, which is collected at the bottom of this laft fluid, 
Ihould be laid over leveral fibres of paper, placed either 
in funnels, or on cloths, lo that between each filtre there 
may be about two fingers breadth. It dries very (lowly, 
diminilhes, cracks, and acquires a fort of confluence': a 
little of it is to be taken up from time to time lor exami¬ 
nation ; when, on moving it with a fpatula, it feems to 
break away, and not to run into a pafte, it mult be lpte- 
dily put between blotting paper, and placed in a prtis 
wrapped up in linen. It muff at firft be prelfed very gent¬ 
ly, leavinga quarter orlialf an hour between, otherwife tlie 
filtreand linen will both betorn., Ic may be known when the 
matter has been preffed enough by the extremities of It feel¬ 
ing folid to the fingers: then loofen the prefs, and take off 
the cloth and paper, which will come away eafily enough. 
Divide the kermes as much as poilible with a wooden 
fpatula, and put it in a hair-fieve lined with blotting- 
paper: this Ihould be expofed in the fun, or put into a 
ltove flightly heated : thus will the kermes be very tho¬ 
roughly dried, efpecially if care be taken to break the 
larger clots with a glals pellle, or a fpatula. Once dried, 
the divifion is completed with the help of porphyry; and 
then it is to be put into bottles clofely corked; thefe bot¬ 
tles fliould not be much expofed to the light, as that will 
weaken the colour of the kermes by degrees. “ This 
procefs,” fays Deyeux, “ is indeed longer and more ex- 
4- B penlive 
