But some of the modern chymists assert that, if crude antimony is reduced to so fine a powder that the shining spiculæ cannot be seen, its operation is similar to mild kermes mineral[18], and Doctor James[19], and the author of the New Dispensatory[20], the greatest advocates for its perfect innocence, admit, that when acid, alcaline or oleaginous food have been taken liberally, it has proved violently emetic. It may therefore be fairly concluded, even on their authority, that the crude mineral contains such active particles as may, by accident or mismanagement be rendered extremely virulent. The best modern authors on mineralogy who have carefully examined the antimonial ores, in their natural state, affirm that all of them are arsenical; and some of them were found in Carls ort, in the mine of Salberg, about the end of the last century, so similar to arsenical ores as to be preserved in cabinets, as specimens of arsenical pyrites, their real nature remaining undiscovered, till it was explained in the year 1748, by Mr. Van Swob master of the mines, in a treatise communicated to the royal academy of sciences at Stockholm[21]. Antimony also frequently contains a portion of lead[22], the poisonous qualities of which have been clearly demonstrated by the learned Doctor Baker in his elaborate critical dissertations on that subject, published in the transactions of the college of physicians of London, and by the ingenious Doctor Percival in his observations and experiments on the poison of lead. SECTION III. _Of the Chymical Properties and Analysis of Antimony._ It appears from Dioscorides, Pliny and Galen, that in their time antimony was not chymically examined, nor used internally though they recommend it as an external application. It is not surprising that modern chymists should differ concerning its constituent parts, since they cannot be separated without losing something in the operation. Their proportions are also various in different specimens of the crude mineral, a pound of some yielding ten or eleven ounces of regulus, whilst others scarce afford eight ounces[23]. But whatever may be their opinion concerning the effects of crude antimony, they are almost unanimous in affirming, that it contains a portion of arsenic, which by different management, may be either converted into an efficacious remedy or a deadly poison.[24]