a blackish mineral substance, shining the hands, full of long, shining, needle-like striae, hard, brittle, and considerably heavy. It is found in different parts of Europe, as Bohemia, Saxony, Transylvania, Hungary, France and England; commonly in mines by itself, intermixed with earth and stony matters. Sometimes it is blended with the richer ores of silver, and renders the extraction of that metal difficult by volatilizing a part of the silver, or, in the language of the miners, robbing the ore.

This mineral is separated from its natural impurities by fusion in an earthen pot whose bottom is full of holes; the fluid antimony passing through, while the unfusable matters remain behind. The melting vessel is set into another pot sunk in the ground. This last, which is of a conical figure, and serves for a receiver, gives the shape to the loaves of antimony usually met with. The juncture of the two vessels is closely luted, the uppermost one covered, and a fire made round it. In some places, instead of a pot with a perforated bottom, one is made use of which has no bottom, and a perforated iron plate is interposed betwixt it and the receiver. But the former method is preferable, as the antimony, while in fusion, is apt to dissolve some of the iron. Very little heat is necessary in this operation, for the antimony melts before it is red hot.

Medicinal Uses, &c. For a long time this mineral was esteemed poisonous. In 1666, its use was prohibited in France by an edict of parliament; and in 1669, one Befnier was expelled the faculty for having given it. The edict was repealed in 1650; antimony having a few years before been received into the number of purgatives. In 1668, a new edict came forth, forbidding its use by any but doctors of the faculty.—It is now universally allowed, that pure antimony in its crude state has no noxious quality; and that the many of its preparations are most virulently emetic and cathartic, yet, by a slight alteration or addition, they lose their virulence, and become mild in their operation. Antimony was used by the ancients in collyria against inflammations of the eyes, and for staining the eyebrows black. Its most efficacious preparations, are the regulus, glaas, and liver*. Antimony is also made use of for purifying and heightening the colour of gold. See that article.