(M. Attilius), a consul during the first Punic war. He reduced Brundufium, and in his second consulship he took 64 and sunk 30 galleys of the Carthaginian fleet, on the coasts of Sicily. Afterwards he landed in Africa; and so rapid was his success, that in a short time he made himself master of about 200 places of consequence on the coast. The Carthaginians sued for peace, but the conqueror refused to grant it; and soon after he was defeated in a battle by Xanthipus, and 30,000 of his men were left on the field of battle, and 15,000 taken prisoners. Regulus was in the number of the captives, and he was carried in triumph to Carthage. He was sent by the enemy to Rome, to propose an accommodation and an exchange of prisoners; and if his commission was unsuccessful, he was bound by the most solemn oaths to return to Carthage without delay. When he came to Rome, Regulus dissuaded his countrymen from accepting the terms which the enemy proposed; and when his opinion had had due influence on the senate, Regulus retired to Carthage agreeable to his engagements. The Carthaginians were told that their offers of peace had been rejected at Rome by the means of Regulus; and therefore they prepared to punish him with the greatest severity. His eye-brows were cut, and he was exposed for some days to the excessive heat of the meridian sun, and afterwards confined in a barrel, whose sides were everywhere filled with large iron spikes, till he died in the greatest agonies. His sufferings were heard of at Rome; and the senate permitted his widow to inflict whatever punishment she pleased on some of the most illustrious captives of Carthage which were in their hands. She confined them also in prisons filled with sharp iron points; and was so exquisite in her cruelty, that the senate interfered, and stopped the barbarity of her punishment. Regulus died about 251 years before Christ.—Memmius, a Roman, made governor of Greece by Caligula. While Regulus was in his province, the emperor wished to bring the celebrated statue of Jupiter Olympus by Phidias to Rome, but this was supernaturally prevented; and according to ancient authors, the ship which was to convey it was destroyed by lightning, and the workmen who attempted to remove the statue were terrified away by sudden noises.—A man who condemned Sejanus.—Roscius, a man who held the consulship but for one day, in the reign of Vitellius.

chemistry, an imperfect metallic substance that falls to the bottom of the crucible, in the melting of ores or impure metallic substances. It is the finest or purest part of the metal; and, according to the alchemists, is denominated regulus, or little king, as being the first-born of the royal metallic blood. According to them, it is really a son, but not a perfect man; i.e., not yet a perfect metal, for want of time and proper nourishment. To procure the regulus or mercurial parts of metals, &c. flux powders are commonly used; as nitre, tartar, &c. which purge the fulphurous part adhering to the metal, by attracting and absorbing it to themselves.

Regulus of Antimony. See Chemistry, no 1252—1257; and see Index there, at Antimony.

Regulus of Arsenic. See Chemistry, no 1267, &c., and 1285—1294. The ancient process for making re- Regulus of arsenic consisted in mixing four parts of arsenic with two parts of black flux, one part of borax, and one part of filings of iron or copper, and quickly fusing the mixture in a crucible. After the operation is finished, a regulus of arsenic will be found at the bottom of the crucible of a white livid colour, and of considerable solidity. The iron and copper employed in this process are not intended, as in the operation for the martial regulus of antimony, to precipitate the arsenic, and to separate it from sulphur or any other substance; for the white arsenic is pure, and nothing is to be taken from it; but, on the contrary, the inflammable principle is to be added to reduce it to a regulus. The true use of these metals in the present operation is to unite with the regulus of arsenic, to give it more body, and to prevent its entire dissipation in vapours. Hence the addition of iron, while it procures these advantages, has the inconvenience of altering the purity of the regulus: for the metallic substance obtained is a regulus of arsenic alloyed with iron. It may, however, be purified from the iron by sublimation in a close vessel; by which operation the regulus of arsenic part, which is very volatile, is sublimed to the top of the vessel, and is separated from the iron, which being of a fixed nature remains at the bottom. We are not, however, very certain, that in this kind of rectification the regulus of arsenic does not carry along with it a certain quantity of iron; for, in general, a volatile substance raises along with it, in sublimation, a part of any fixed matter with which it happened to be united.

Mr Brandt proposes another method, which we believe is preferable to that described. He directs that white arsenic should be mixed with soap. Instead of the soap, olive-oil may be used, which has been found to succeed well. The mixture is to be put into a retort or glass matrafs, and to be distilled or sublimed with fire, at first very moderate, and only sufficient to raise the oil. As the oils, which are not volatile, cannot be distilled but by a heat sufficient to burn and decompose them, the oil therefore which is mixed with the arsenic undergoes these alterations, and after having penetrated the arsenic thoroughly is reduced to a coal. When no more oily vapours rise, we may then know that the oil is reduced to coal. Then the fire must be increased, and the metallized arsenic will be soon sublimed to the upper part of the vessel, in the inside of which it will form a metallic crust. When no more sublimes, the vessel is to be broken, and the adhering crust of regulus of arsenic is to be separated. The regulus obtained by this first operation is not generally perfect, or not entirely so, as a part of it is always overcharged with fuliginous matter, and another part has not enough of phlogiston; which latter part adheres to the inner surface of the crust, and forms grey or brown crystals. This sublimate must then be mixed with a less quantity of oil, and sublimed a second time like the first; and even, to obtain as good regulus as may be made, a third sublimation in a close vessel, and without oil, is necessary. During this operation, the oil which rises is more fetid than any other empyreumatic oil, and is almost indigestible. This smell certainly proceeds from the arsenic; the smell of which is exceedingly strong and disagreeable when heated.

Regulus of arsenic made by the method we have described, and which we consider as the only one which is pure, has all the properties of a semimetal. It has metallic gravity, opacity, and lustre. Its colour is white and livid, it tarnishes in the air, is very brittle, but much more volatile than any other semimetal. It easily loses its inflammable principle, when sublimed in vessels into which the air has access; the sublimate having the appearance of grey flowers, which by repeated sublimations become entirely white, and similar to white crystalline arsenic. When regulus of arsenic is heated quickly and strongly in open air, as under a muffle, it burns with a white or bluish flame, and dissipates in a thick fume, which has a very fetid smell, like that of garlic.

Reguluses of arsenic may be combined with acids and most metals. See Arsenic, no. 17. We shall only farther observe here, that, according to Mr Brandt, in the Swedish Memoirs, the regulus of arsenic cannot be united with mercury. Although the phenomena exhibited by white arsenic and regulus of arsenic in solutions and alloys are probably the same, yet an accurate comparison of these would deserve notice, especially if the regulus employed were well made; for some difference must proceed from the greater or less quantity of what in the old chemistry is called phlogiston with which it is united. See Chemistry, no. 1288, &c.

Regulus of Cobalt, is a semimetal lately discovered, and not yet perfectly well known. It receives its name from cobalt, because it can only be extracted from the mineral properly so called. The process by which this semimetal is obtained, is similar to those generally used for the extraction of metals from their ores. The cobalt must be thoroughly torrefied, to deprive it of all the sulphur and arsenic it contains; and the unmetallic earthy and stony matters must be separated by washing. The cobalt thus prepared is then to be mixed with double or triple its quantity of black flux, and a little decrepitated sea-salt; and must be fitted either in a forge or in a hot furnace, for this ore is very difficult of fusion. When the fusion has been well made, we find upon breaking the crucible, after it has cooled, a metallic regulus covered with a scoria of a deep blue colour. The regulus is of a white metallic colour. The surface of its fracture is close and small-grained. The semimetal is hard, but brittle. When the fusion has been well made, its surface appears to be carved with many convex threads, which cross each other diversely. As almost all cobalts contain also bismuth, and even as much as of the regulus itself, this bismuth is reduced by the same operation, and precipitated in the same manner, as the regulus of cobalt; for although these two metals are frequently mixed in the same mineral, that is, in cobalt, they are incapable of uniting together, and are always found distinct and separate from one another when they are melted together. At the bottom of the crucible then we find both regulus of cobalt and bismuth. The latter, having a greater specific gravity, is found under the former. They may be separated from each other by the blow of a hammer. Bismuth may be easily distinguished from the regulus of cobalt, not only from its situation in the crucible, but also by the large shining facets which appear in its fracture, and which are very different from the close ash-coloured grain of regulus of cobalt.

This semimetal is more difficult of fusion than any other; other is less easily calcinable, and much less volatile. Its calx is grey, and more or less brown; and when fused with vitrifiable matters, it changes into a beautiful blue glass called felspar. This calx, then, is one of those which prefer always a part of their inflammable principle. It is soluble in acids, as the regulus is. This regulus is soluble in vitriolic, marine, nitrous acids, and in aqua-regia, to all which it communicates colours. The solution in vitriolic acid is reddish; the solution in marine acid is of a fine bluish-green when hot, and its colour is almost totally effaced when cold, but is easily recoverable by heating it, without being obliged to uncork the bottle containing it. This solution of the calx of regulus of cobalt is the basis of the sympathetic ink; for without marine acid this ink cannot be made. All the solutions of regulus of cobalt may be precipitated by alkalis; and these precipitates are blue, which colour they retain when vitrified with the strong-elf fire.

Not only sympathetic ink, but also regulus of cobalt, may be made from the zaffre commonly sold; which is nothing else than the calx of regulus of cobalt mixed with more or less pulverized flints. For this purpose we must separate as well as we can the powder of flints from it, by washing, as M. Beaumé does, and then reduce it with black flux and sea-salt. Regulus of cobalt seems incapable of uniting with sulphur; but it easily unites with liver of sulphur; and the union it forms is so intimate, that M. Beaumé could not separate these two substances otherwise than by precipitation with an acid.

Many curious and interesting remarks are still to be discovered concerning this singular semimetal, and we may hope to receive further information from the endeavours of chemists who have undertaken the examination of it. M. Beaumé particularly has made considerable experiments on this subject, part of which he communicates to the public in his Course of Chemistry, and from whom we have borrowed the most of the above observations. See Chemistry, n° 1294, &c.