Borax is extensively used as a constituent of enamels and glazes for both metal ware and pottery. It is also used as a flux in soldering and brazing, and in domestic ways it serves as a mild alkali, as a preservative for meats, and in a great variety of less important applications. EXERCISES 1. Account for the fact that a solution of borax in water is alkaline. 2. What weight of water of crystallization does 1 kg. of borax contain? 3. When a concentrated solution of borax acts on silver nitrate a borate of silver is formed. If the solution of borax is dilute, however, an hydroxide of silver forms. Account for this difference in behavior. CHAPTER XXII THE METALS ~The metals.~ The elements which remain to be considered are known collectively as the metals. They are also called the base-forming elements, since their hydroxides are bases. A metal may therefore be defined as an element whose hydroxide is a base. When a base dissolves in water the hydroxyl groups form the anions, while the metallic element forms the cations. From this standpoint a metal can be defined as an element capable of forming simple cations in solution. The distinction between a metal and a non-metal is not a very sharp one, since the hydroxides of a number of elements act as bases under some conditions and as acids under others. We have seen that antimony is an element of this kind. ~Occurrence of metals in nature.~ A few of the metals are found in nature in the free state. Among these are gold, platinum, and frequently copper. They are usually found combined with other elements in the form of oxides or salts of various acids. Silicates, carbonates, sulphides, and sulphates are the most abundant salts. All inorganic substances occurring in nature, whether they contain a metal or not, are called _minerals_. Those minerals from which a useful substance can be extracted are called _ores_ of the substance. These two terms are most frequently used in connection with the metals. ~Extraction of metals,--metallurgy.~ The process of extracting a metal from its ores is called the metallurgy of the metal. The metallurgy of each metal presents peculiarities of its own, but there are several methods of general application which are very frequently employed. 1. _Reduction of an oxide with carbon._ Many of the metals occur in nature in the form of oxides. When these oxides are heated to a high temperature with carbon the oxygen combines with it and the metal is set free. Iron, for example, occurs largely in the form of the oxide Fe_{2}O_{3}. When this is heated with carbon the reaction expressed in the following equation takes place: Fe_{2}O_{3} + 3 C = 2 Fe + 3 CO.