534 
PROCESS  FOR  PREPARING  JAMES'  POWDER. 
of  it  which  had  assumed  a  somewhat  rounded  form.  The  dark 
grey  color  of  the  whole  mass  seemed  to  be  caused  by  the  inter- 
mixture of  thousands  of  minute  shining  particles  of  the  metal 
with  the  phosphate  of  lime.  Round  the  mouth  of  the  skittle- 
pot  and  on  its  cover  was  a  small  accumulation  of  w^hite  powder, 
some  of  which  was  minutely  crystallized,  and  was  deposited  by 
the  dense  white  smoke  which  issued  from  the  skittle-pot  every 
time  the  cover  was  removed,  and  ceased  when  it  was  replaced. 
At  the  bottom  of  the  skittle-pot  was  a  small  quantity  of  yellow 
powder.  It  vras  remarkable  that,  although  many  processes  had 
been  conducted  in  this  fire-grate  in  all  respects  in  the  same 
manner,  except  that  the  fire  had  been  maintained  for  two  hours 
only,  the  powder  had  always  turned  out  white,  a  significant  fact 
which  seemed  strongly  to  indicate  that  the  heating  had  been 
continued  too  long,  and  perhaps  too  intensely.  It  also  agreed 
with  the  two  cases  already  described,  in  which  the  intense  heat 
of  the  furnace  during  two  hours  had  produced  the  same  injurious 
efiect.  It  corresponded  also  with  the  fact  already  stated,  that  a 
portion  which  had  been  adequately  raked  was  rendered  perfectly 
white  in  the  crucible  by  fifteen  minutes'  red  heat  in  a  strong 
fire,  the  same  effect  not  being  producible  by  a  weaker  heat  for  a 
much  greater  length  of  time. 
In  due  time,  after  finishing  a  quantity  of  my  James'  powder, 
I  was  anxious  to  know  something  of  its  medical  effects,  and  with 
this  view  gave  it  to  several  friends  for  trial,  and  used  it  also  in 
my  own  person.  But  in  most  of  the  cases  tried,  the  powder  had 
a  rough  action,  producing  sickness  and  sometimes  vomiting.  I 
had  used  equal  quantities  of  bone-ashes  and  sulphuret  of  anti- 
mony as  directed  by  Pearson,  and  followed  in  the  Pharmaco- 
poeias, but  this  proved  to  be  too  much  of  the  sulphuret.  I  there- 
fore made  new  trials  of  the  process  with  half  the  quantity  of 
antimony.  In  these  proportions  the  difficulty  and  uncertainty 
of  the  process  were  greatly  diminished  ;  the  powder  almost  al- 
ways turned  out  snow-white,  and  when  used  as  a  medicine  in  due 
doses  was  for  the  most  part  easily  borne  in  the  primce  vice.  But 
it  is  very  probable  that  Dr.  James  employed  a  less  ratio  of  sul- 
phuret of  antimony  even  than  one-half ;  he  sometimes  prescribed 
his  powder  in  doses  of  ten  grains  every  six  hours,  and  even 
