metal very rarely found pure in nature, but generally as a sulphurite, to which indeed the name of Stibium, or Στιβιον, was applied by the ancients; and the sulphurite, it is said, from a preparation of it having proved fatal to the monks of a German convent, afterwards ob- tained the name of antimony—quasi, anti monachos. Whether this be true or not, this name soon became general for the sulphuret, and is now applied to the pure metal.

Antimony has a white colour, with nearly the lustre of silver when fresh; but it tarnishes slowly when freely exposed. Its specific gravity is only 6·7, and it melts at 810° F. On cooling, it shows a tendency to crystallise, and assumes a foliated texture. When moderately heated in the open air, it catches fire, and burns with a bright bluish-white flame. It is brittle, and easily pounded.

It unites with oxygen into a white oxide, now generally employed for obtaining antimonial medicines, especially emetic tartar, which is a tartarate of antimony and potash. The metal forms several compounds with sulphur; the most important of which is the black sulphuret, the ore from which antimony is always obtained for the arts. This substance, as we have said, was the ancient Stibium, and is the material applied ages ago by the women of Eastern countries to give increased lustre to their eyes by darkening the eyelashes. The paint said in the Holy Scriptures to have been used by Jezebel, seems to have been this substance; for St Jerome, who knew the manners of Eastern women, has, in the Vulgate, rendered the passage "oculos ejus povit stibio." All our antimonial preparations were formerly made directly from the sulphuret; and it was used to form alloys before its true nature was understood. The pure metal was then termed regulus of antimony, and under this name it is mentioned in the Curru Antimoni Triumphalis of Basil Valentius, a German monk and alchemist.

Alloys of antimony with other metals are of value. It is added to gold in ornamental work, to give variety of colour; it is added to bell-metal to increase the sonorous quality of the compound; it is alloyed with lead and tin to give hardness and solidity to type-metal; a small addition of it to 11 parts of tin and 4 of copper, improves the quality of specula for telescopes, and enables the compound to receive a higher polish. See Chemistry.