a preparation of lead, usually in form of soft flakes, of a yellowish reddish colour. If calcined lead be urged with a hasty fire, it melts into the appearance of oil, and on cooling concretes into litharge. Greatest part of the litharge met with in the shops is produced in the purification of silver from lead, and the refining of gold and silver by means of this metal: according to the degree of fire and other circumstances, it proves of a pale or deep colour: the first has been commonly called litharge of silver, the other litharge of gold. See LEAD, CHEMISTRY Index.