Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry, 5th ed.

by Pierre Joseph Macquer

There remains, at the bottom of the retort, a fixed, shining, crystalline, black mass, which may be reduced to a Regulus by the common method.

Butter of Antimony may also be obtained from a mixture of Antimony with any of the other preparations of Mercury in which the Acid of Sea-salt is an ingredient; such as sweet Sublimate, the Mercurial Panacea, and White Precipitate: but as none of these combinations contain so great a proportion of that Acid as is in the Corrosive Sublimate, the Butter obtained by their means is far from being so caustic and so fiery as that which rises from a mixture of Antimony, or its Regulus, with Corrosive Sublimate.

Silver precipitated by the Acid of Sea-salt, and ready to be melted into a Luna cornea, being mixed with powdered Regulus of Antimony yields likewise a Butter of Antimony.

If you propose to make it by this means, you must mingle one part of the Regulus of Antimony in powder with two parts of the Precipitate; put this mixture into a glass retort of such a size that it may fill but one half thereof; set it in a furnace; apply a receiver; begin with a gentle heat, which will make a clear liquor come over; and then increase your fire by degrees. White vapours will rise and condense into a liquid Butter; and in the mean time there will be a slight ebullition in the receiver, attended with a little heat. Continue the fire till nothing more will come over; then let your vessels cool and unlute them.

You will find in the receiver an Oil or Butter of Antimony, partly fluid and partly congealed, somewhat inclined to yellow, weighing an eighth part more than the Regulus of Antimony made use of.

The inside of the retort will be carpeted over with small white flowers, of a brilliant silver colour, and an acid taste; and in the bottom of the retort will be found a hard, compact, ponderous mass, difficult to break, yet falling of itself to a powder; its colour externally grey, white, and blueish; internally black, and shining much like Regulus of Antimony; having a saltish taste on its surface, and weighing about a sixteenth less than the Precipitate of Silver employed in the operation.

This experiment demonstrates that the Acid of Sea-salt hath a greater affinity with Regulus of Antimony than with Silver.

The Butter of Antimony prepared by this method is somewhat less caustic than that made with Corrosive Sublimate. It is called the Lunar Butter of Antimony.

The effervescence that arises in the receiver is remarkable. Probably the Acid of Sea-salt, though reduced into vapours when it ascends out of the retort, is not yet perfectly combined with the reguline part of the Antimony, which it nevertheless carries over with it, and the union is completed in the receiver; which occasions the effervescence observed.