P HEM 
of the ftomach, the lungs', the inteftines, and even the 
urinary palfage. It is moil: commonly ufed in diforders 
qf the breail to affift experioration. It ought not, how¬ 
ever, to be adminiftered, till after the inflammation is 
abated. It has likewife great fuccefs when given in re¬ 
peated fmall dofes in catarrhs of the breaft, the humid 
afthma, maladies of the (kin, glandular lvvellings, &e. 
It is adminiftered in a dofe from half a grain to two or three 
grains in proper liquids, or made up in piils. It fome- 
times caules vomiting, and very frequently a6ls as a l'u- 
dorific or a diuretic. 
The golden fulphur, on account of its being a violent 
emetic and cathartic, is not much ufed. It was formerly 
given in the lame diforders as the kermes, but its effects 
are much more uncertain. There are alfo many other 
preparations of antimony, which are ufed in medicine 
to great advantage. This metallic fubftanceis one of the 
molt important in the Materia Medica, and pliyficians 
cannot pay too great an attention to its properties. It 
is one of thofe upon which the alchemifts, and even the 
chemifts, have bellowed great labour, which has given 
rife to the numerous preparations above defcribed. 
Of TELLURIUM. 
We are indebted to Klaproth for the difoovery of this 
metal : lie found it in an ore of white gold, called the 
auriferous ore, otherwife aurum paradoxicum or problcma- 
ticurn. It exifts, i. In the mine called miriahilf, in the 
Fatzebay hills, near Zalethna, in Tranfylvania. 2. In 
the graphic gold of Oftenbanza. 3. In the ore from the 
yellow mine of Nagyag. 4. In the ore from the mine 
known by the name of the mine of grey foliated gold of 
Nagyag. 
To obtain this metal from the ore, the ore is gently 
heated with fix parts of the muriatic acid; three parts 
of the nitric being then added, the mixture is boiled, 
upon which there arifes a confiderable erfervefcence, and 
a complete folution is obtained. The filtered folution 
is diluted with as much water as it can bear without be¬ 
coming turbid, which is a very fmall quantity, and a fo¬ 
lution of caullic potalh is then added to the liquor until 
the white precipitate which is at firit formed difappears 
again, and nothing remains but a brown flaky fediment. 
This lad precipitate is the oxyd of gold mixed with the 
oxyd of iron, and a feparation is efferied by the common 
means. The muriatic acid is added to the alkaline folu- 
tion in fufficient quantity to faturate the alkali entirely. 
An excefs of the acid mull be avoided. A white preci¬ 
pitate, which by heat fettles at the bottom of the veil'd 
under the form of a heavy powder, is produced in great 
abundance. After the precipitate has been walhed and 
dried, it is formed into a kind of palle with a fufficient 
quantity of any fat oil, and this mafs is put into a fmall 
glafs retort, to which a recipient is (lightly fitted. When 
this arrangement is made, it is gradually brought to a 
red heat, and in proportion as.the oil is decompofed, 
there are obferved, as in the diftillation of mercury, 
brilliant and metallic drops, which cover the upper part 
of the retort, and which at interval's fall to the bottom 
of the velfel, and are immediately replaced by others. 
After it is cooled, concreted metallic fixed drops are 
found adhering to the lides of the retort and at the bot¬ 
tom of the velfel, and the remainder of the metal is re¬ 
duced and melted, with a brilliant furface, and almoft 
always cryftallized. 
Elfential character of this new metal: It has the white 
colour of tin approaching to the grey colour of lead. Its 
metallic fplendour is confiderable, and its frafture lami¬ 
nated. It is highly brittle and friable. By fullering it to 
cool quietly and gradually, it readily allumes a cryftallized 
lurface. Its fpecific gravity is 6* 113. 1 1 belongs to the clafs 
of the moft fufible metals. When heated with the blow¬ 
pipe upon charcoal, it burns with a very lively flame, of a 
blue colour, inclining at the edges to a green. It is fo vola¬ 
tile as to rife entirely in a whitilh grey fmoke, and exhales 
a difagreeable odour like that of radilhes. On cealing 
to heat it, without having entirely volatilized the fmall 
portion fubjefted to this operation, the button which re¬ 
mained retained for a long time its liquidity, and by 
cooling it was covered with a radiated vegetation. 
This metal amalgamates eafily with mercury. With 
fulphur it forms a grey fulphure, of a radiated ftruflure. 
A folution of it in the nitric acid is tranfparent and co- 
lourlefs. When concentrated, it produces in rime fmall 
white light cryftals in the form of needles, which exhibit 
a dendritic aggregation. 
■ This metal diflblves in the nitro-muriatic acid. When 
a large quantity of water is added to fuch a Saturated fo¬ 
lution, the metal is precipitated in the ftate of an oxyd 
under the form of a white powder, which in this ftate is 
foluble in the muriatic acid. By mixing cold, in a well 
flopped velfel, a fmall quantity of this metal with 100 
times its weight of concentrated fulphuric acid, the lat¬ 
ter gradually allumes a beautiful criinfon red colour. By 
means of a fmall quantity of water added drop by drop, 
the liquor difappears, and the fmall quantity of the me¬ 
tal dilfolved depofits itfelf under the form of black flakes. 
Heat deftroys the folution; it makes the red colour difap- 
pear, and difpoles the metal to feparate in the ftate of a 
white oxyd. When, on the contrary, the concentrated 
fulphuric acid is diluted with two or three parts of wa¬ 
ter, and a fmall quantity of the nitric acid has been added, 
a confiderable quantity of the metal will then be dilfolv- 
ed. The folution is tranfparent and colourlefs, and is 
not decompofed by the mixture of a larger quantity of 
water. 
All the pure alkalis precipitate from acid folutions of 
this metal an oxyd of a white colour, foluble in all acids. 
By an excefs of alkali, the precipitate which is formed- 
is entirely re-diflolved. If carbonat be employed inftead 
of pure alkali, the fame phenomenon lakes place, with 
this difference, however, that by excefs of the latter the 
precipitate formed is re-diflolved only in part. Exceed- 
ingly pure pruffiat of potalh produces no precipitate in 
folutions of this metal. 
Alkaline fulphures mixed with acid folutions occafion 
a brown or blackilh precipitate, according as the metal 
is combined with more or lels oxygen. It fometimes 
happens that the colour of the precipitate has a perfedl 
refemblance to mineral kermes, or red fulphurated oxyd 
of antimony. When the fulphure of tellurium is expof- 
ed on burning charcoal, the metal burns with a blue co¬ 
lour conjointly with the l'ulphur. The infufion of nut- 
galls, combined with the fame folutions, gives birth to 
a flaky precipitate, of an Ifabella colour. 
Iron and zink precipitate tellurium from its acid folu¬ 
tions in a metallic ftate under the form of fmall black 
flakes, which refume their fplendour by fridlion, and 
which on burning charcoal melt into a metallic button. 
Tin and antimony produce the fame phenomenon with 
the acid folutions of this new metal. The precipitate 
formed by the antimony proves, in a ftriking manner, 
that tellurium is not a diiguifed antimony, as has been 
i'uppofed. A folution of tin in the muriatic acid, mixed 
with a folution of tellurium in the fame acid, produced 
alfo a black and metallic precipitate. 
The oxyd of tellurium obtained from acid folutions by 
alkalis, or that from alkaline folutions by acids, are both 
reduced with a rapidity refembling detonation, when 
they are expofed to heat on charcoal. It burns and is 
volatilized. By heating for fome time this oxyd of tel¬ 
lurium in a retort, it melts and appears after cooling 
with a yellow ftraw colour, having acquired a lort of ra¬ 
diated texture. Mixed with fat bodies, the oxyd of tel¬ 
lurium is perfectly reduced. 
This is all at prefent known with regard to this metal: 
when a large quantity of it (hall have been obtained, its 
charafters and properties may be more fully eftablilhed. 
The communications of Klaproth have however diffid¬ 
ently proved it to be a diftind metal. 
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