The various saline compounds of this metal, as the acetate, sulphate, and nitrate, are all highly poisonous, but they do not appear to us to merit a separate consideration; and more especially as we have already explained the various processes by which every variety of preparation may be identified. We may just remark that the _sulphuret_, better known by the name of _cinnabar_, or _vermilion_, has been known to occasion deleterious effects. _Dr. Gordon Smith_[294] states, upon the authority of _Mr. Accum_,[295] that “Vermilion has been detected as a poisonous ingredient in cheese:” this may be very true, but he should have stated at the same time, that the deleterious effects produced by it, did not arise from the mercurial sulphuret, but from the red lead with which it happened to be adulterated; and it is necessary to acquaint the forensic chemist, that such a fraud[296] is by no means uncommon; it may be very easily detected by burning a small portion of the suspected sample on a piece of bread in the candle, when metallic globules will announce the presence of lead; for the oxide of mercury, although revived by the process, will at the same time be volatilized. The bread by combustion affords the carbon by which the metallic reduction is effected. The presence of very minute quantities of _vermilion_ may, according to _Mr. Smithson_, be detected by the following simple experiment. Boil a portion with sulphuric acid in a platina spoon, and lay the sulphate thus produced in a drop of muriatic acid, on a piece of gold, and then bring a piece of metallic tin in contact with both, when the white mercurial stain will be produced. ANTIMONY. Although the ancients were entirely ignorant of this metal, they were well acquainted with several of its combinations,[297] _Basil Valentine_, a German Benedictine Monk, was the first who described the process for obtaining it from its ore; to this work, originally written in high Dutch, and known by the title of the “_Currus Triumphalis Antimonii_,” which was published towards the end of the 15th century, we are indebted for almost all our knowledge respecting this metal. Antimony is of a greyish white colour, having considerable brilliancy; its texture is laminated, and exhibits plates crossing each other in every direction; its _specific gravity_ is 6·7021; when rubbed upon the fingers it communicates to them a peculiar taste and smell; it is very brittle, and fuses at the temperature of 809°, but does not appear to be volatile; when fused, with the access of air, it emits white fumes, consisting of an oxide of the metal, which formerly was called _Argentine flowers of Antimony_. When the metal is raised to a white heat, and suddenly agitated, it enters into a state of combustion, and is converted into the same white coloured oxide.