ON  THE  PURIFICATION  OF  ANTIMONY. 
often  worse,  with  the  dried  petals  of  the  flower.  True  saffron 
(under  royal  warranty)  fetches  from  seven  to  ten  rupees  per  seer, 
i.  e.,  in  Kashmeree  coinage, — which  is  little  more  than  half  the 
East  Indian  Company's.  Steeping  the  article  in  water  previous 
to  weighing  out  is  commonly  practised,  which,  in  addition  to  in- 
creasing weight,  injures  its  coloring  properties  irretrievably. 
Sometimes  the  unwary  Hindustanee  merchant  packs  it  in  the 
damp  state,  and,  on  reaching  the  plains,  discovers  to  his  great 
sorrow  that  the  precious  purchase  has  become  a  mass  of  mouldy 
rubbish,  unsaleable  at  a  pice.  This  happened  under  my  own  ob- 
servation Lieut.  W.  H.  Lowther  "  On  the  Natural  Productions 
of  the  Vale  of  Kashmere."  Journal  of  the  Agricultural  and 
Horticultural  Society  of  India,  vol.  viii.,  (1854),  and  Ph.  Jour. 
ON  THE  PURIFICATION  OF  ANTIMONY. 
By  M.  J.  Lefort. 
All  chemists  who  have  had  occasion  to  use  metallic  antimony, 
know  how  difficult  it  is  to  purify  it  for  pharmaceutical  purposes, 
of  the  last  portions  of  iron,  of  lead  and  above  all,  of  arsenic, 
which  it  always  contains.  To  these  impurities  I  may  add  bismuth, 
which  I  have  found  in  some  quantity  in  two  samples  met  with 
in  commerce,  the  origin  of  which  I  was  unable  to  trace. 
The  severe  criticisms  which  have  been  published  on  the  pro- 
cess hitherto  indicated  for  getting  antimony  in  a  state  of  abso- 
lute purity,  tend  to  show  that  this  operation,  although  simple  in 
appearance,  is  really  attended  with  some  difficulty. 
Among  the  different  processes  for  the  purification  of  antimony, 
there  are  two,  which,  being  recommended  on  the  authority  of 
Wohler  and  Liebig,  claim  the  especial  attention  of  pharmaceutists. 
Wohler's  process  is  based  on  the  transformation  of  the  metals 
into  acids,  by  means  of  nitrate  of  potash.  There  are  thus  pro- 
duced insoluble  antimoniate  of  potash,  and  soluble  arsenite  of 
potash. 
Berzelius,  who  tried  this  process,  found  that  it  did  not  always 
yield  a  product  free  from  arsenic,  for  the  resulting  antimony 
heated  in  the  blowpipe  flame  with  charcoal  generally  affords  a 
slight  alliaceous  smell. 
