[26] Stahl’s Chymico-Physico-Medical Works, page 488-591. On the arsenenical substance of antimony. [27] New Dispensatory, page 343. [28] New Dispensatory, p. 85 and 86. [29] Basilica Antimonii, in the Appendix to Hartman’s Chymistry, p. 896. [30] See the fifth part of the Philosophical Furnaces. [31] Vol. I. Of the Theory of Chymistry, p. 31, of sulphureous semi-metals. [32] Chymical Dictionary on the Ores of Antimony. [33] Cronstedt’s Essay toward a System of Mineralogy, translated by Da Costa. London, 1772. [34] Compare Glauber’s account of the effect of orpiment cups, in page 31, with that of essence of antimony in the fourth section. [35] Mais quelquefois il se (antimoine) rencontre avec des sels acides qui l’ouvrent, (dans l’estomach, et dans les intestines) luy donnent une nouvelle fermentation, et lui sont produire des super-purgations incommodes. Traîte de l’antimoine, par M. Nicholas Lemery, p. 7. [36] Dr. James’s, in his Dispensatory, page 285. [37] Observationes Physico-Chymicæ, p. 233. [38] We are told by Newman, that the utmost caution is necessary to avoid the fumes of arsenic, and that it is on account of the danger arising from them that this mineral has been so little examined by the chymists; but according to Dr. Percival’s late observations, they seem to have been mistaken. I have, says he, some doubt, whether the vapours of arsenic be so poisonous as is commonly supposed, and if the candid reader will excuse the digression, I will lay before him my reasons for it. To solder works of silver filligree, and other delicate manufactures of that kind, a composition is used of which arsenic is the principal ingredient. The solder is melted by the flame of a lamp, directed by a blow-pipe; and this operation cannot be performed with due accuracy, but in a close room. The greatest part of the arsenic is evaporated by the blast and flames, and some part also of the rest of the solder. The workmen must constantly breath these vapors, because there is little or no current of air to carry them into the chimney. Yet the men appear to enjoy as good health, and to live as long as other artists who pursue their business in close rooms, and use lamps. Amongst other examples of the truth of this observation, I saw one lately at the manufactory at Soho, near Birmingham: a man, aged upwards of fifty years, who has soldered silver filigree more than five and thirty years, and has regularly passed from eight to twelve hours daily in his occupation, and is at present fat, strong, active, chearful, and of a complexion by no means sickly. Neither he, nor his brother artists, use any means to counteract the effects of their trade. Dr. Percival’s Observations and Experiments on the Poison of Lead, p. 75, 76, and 77, London, 1774.