in Mineralogy, one of the semi-metals, is of a silver white colour, much inclined to red, and liable to tarnish; generally occurs massive or lamellated, sometimes, though rarely, crystallized; is brittle when cold, but, on being heated, may be hammered into plates; at the comparatively low temperature of 476° it melts, and on cooling crystallizes. In close vessels, at a temperature of about 30° Wedgewood, it sublimes, emits copious fumes of the oxide of bismuth, burns with a bluish white flame, and, in the end, by increasing the heat, runs into a greenish coloured glass. Native bismuth is found in considerable quantity in some of the silver and cobalt mines of Bohemia and Saxony, also at Wheal Sparnon, near Redruth, in Cornwall, and at Carrockfield in Cumberland. In a native state its specific gravity is 9-737, but after fusion considerably lower. It is attacked with difficulty by muriatic or sulphuric acid, but is readily soluble in nitric. Its great fusibility renders it a useful compound in the formation of several metallic alloys, as in the fabrication of printers' types, and the composition of pewter. Eight parts of bismuth, five of lead, and three of tin, constitute what is called Newton's metal, from its discoverer, which melts at the heat of boiling water, and may be fused over a candle in a piece of stiff paper without burning the paper. Plumbers' solder consists of one part of bismuth with five of lead and three of tin. With an equal weight of lead, it forms a brilliant white alloy, much harder than lead, and more malleable than bismuth, though ductile; and if the proportion of lead be increased, it is rendered still more malleable.