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MISCELLANY. 
Crystallized oxychloride of Mercury. — M. Malagutti states that when a 
large proportion of water is added to an acid solution of protochloride of 
antimony, an abundant white precipitate is immediately formed, which 
when properly washed consists of two atoms of protoxide and one atom 
of protochloride of antimony ; if, on the contrary, instead of removing the 
precipitate, it is left in the fluid for a day or two, it becomes much dimi- 
nished in size, and is finally converted into thick and crystalline layers. 
This new compound, when washed and dried, is in the form of small 
prismatic needles, white, shining and decomposed into pure oxide of an- 
timony, by boiling in water, by prolonged washings, and by the alkaline 
carbonates. These crystals are wholly soluble in nitric acid, and when 
subjected to the action of heat, lose most of their chlorine. On analysis 
they were found to be composed of : 
Protoxide antimony, 74.51 
Protochloride antimony, 25.70 
When sulphuret of antimony is treated with hydrochloric acid, some- 
what diluted with water, in order to obtain sulphuretted hydrogen, the 
fluid above the unattacked sulphuret becomes red on cooling. If this fluid 
be decanted and mixed with a great quantity of water, a very copious, yel- 
lowish precipitate is obtained, which in a few days is reduced to a thin 
layer, formed of minute crystals of a beautiful red colour. M. Malagutti 
subjected these crystals to analysis, and found that they were oxychloride 
of antimony, coloured by variable quantities of sulphuret of antimony. It 
was even easy, on examining them with a microscope, to discover that 
the colour was owing to a foreign body, unequally distributed between 
the crystals. 
Journ. de Pharm* 
