Silver is got into solution from its ores by attacking with nitric acid, but it is best, after dissolving, to cautiously add dilute hydrochloric acid, and to carefully avoid excess. If the quantity of silver is very small the solution is allowed to stand twenty-four hours, but, otherwise, it is warmed and filtered as soon as it clears. Dry the residue and concentrate the silver in a button of lead by pot method or scorification, according to the amount of stony matter present. Cupel the lead, and the resulting button will be free from all metals, except perhaps gold. It may be weighed; or dissolved in nitric acid, and the silver determined gravimetrically in the diluted and filtered solution. It is better to weigh the metal and afterwards to determine the gold in it, estimating the silver by difference. Silver alloys are dissolved in dilute nitric acid (free from chlorides), diluted, and filtered. The solution is then ready for gravimetric determination. Sulphuretted hydrogen precipitates silver (like copper), completely, even from fairly acid solutions. GRAVIMETRIC DETERMINATION. Add dilute hydrochloric acid in small excess to the hot dilute solution, which must contain free nitric acid. Heat and stir until the solution clears. Decant through a small filter, and wash with hot water, acidulated at first with a little nitric acid if bismuth is suspected to be present. Dry quickly, transfer as much as possible of the precipitate to a watch-glass; burn and ignite the filter paper, treating the ash first with two drops of nitric acid and then with one of hydrochloric, and again dry. Add the rest of the silver chloride and heat slowly over a Bunsen burner until it begins to fuse. Cool and weigh. The precipitate is silver chloride (AgCl) and contains 75.27 per cent. of silver. The moist precipitate is heavy and curdy; it is decomposed by direct sunlight, becoming violet under its influence. When heated it is yellowish; and, since it is volatile at a high temperature, it must not, in drying, be heated above its fusing point. The fused chloride can be removed from the crucible (to which it adheres strongly) by digesting with dilute acid and zinc.