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SULLY 154 SULPHUR erected into a duchy in his favor. After the murder of Henry IV. (1610) he re- tired from coui't and resigned most of his charges. He now occupied himself chiefly with agriculture, and rarely took part in political affairs. He was created marshal by Richelieu in 1634, and died in Villebon Castle, France, Dec. 22, 1641. He left memoirs which have been pub- lished in English. SULLY - PRUDHOMME, RE N E FRANgOIS ARM AND (sii-le'priid- um'), a French poet; born in Paris, France, March 16, 1839. He wrote: "Stanzas and Poems" (1865) ; "The Broken Vase"; "The Stables of Augeas"; "The Wildernesses"; "Impressions of War" (collected 1872) ; "Revolt of the Flowers" (1874) ; "Reflections on the Art of Versification" (1892). He was elected a member of the Academy in 1881, and in 1901 received one of the Nobel prizes amounting to about $40,000. He died September, 1907. SULLY, THOMAS, an American artist; born in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, Eng- land, in 1783; emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1792; studied painting in Charleston; established him- self in Richmond, Va., as a portrait painter in 1803; removed afterward to New York; and in 1809 settled in Phil- adelphia, where he afterward lived. His reputation as one of the leading Ameri- can portrait painters is founded on numerous works, the best known of which are the full-length portraits of Dr. Benjamin Rush, Commodore De- catur, Thomas Jefferson, and Lafayette. The Boston Museum possesses his cele- brated picture of "Washington Crossing the Delaware." He died in Philadelphia Nov. 5, 1872. SULPHATES, salts of sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is dibasic, forming two classes of sulphates, viz., neutral sul- phates, in which the tv/o hydrogen atoms of the acid are replaced by metal, and acid sulphates, in which one hydrogen atom only is so replaced. The general formula of the former class is M2SO4, and of the latter MHSO4. (M repre- sents a monovalent metal.) Of the sul- phates, some are found native; some are very soluble, some sparingly soluble, and some insoluble. The most important sulphates are: Sulphate of aluminum and potassium, or alum; sulphate of ammonium, employed for making car- bonate of ammonia; sulphate of copper, or blue vitriol, much used as an escharotic in surgery, and also used in dyeing and for preparing certain green pigments; sulphate of iron, or green vit- riol, used in making ink, and very ex- tensively in dyeing and calico printing'; it is also much used in medicine; sul- phate of calcium, or gypsum; sulphate of magnesium, or Epsom salts; sulphate of manganese, used in calico printing; sulphate of mercury, used in the prepar- ation of corrosive sublimate and of calo- mel; bi-sulphate of potash, much used as a flux in mineral analysis ; sulphate of sodium, or Glauber's salts; sulphate of quinine, much used in medicine; sul- phate of zinc, or white vitriol, used in surgery, also in the preparation of dry- ing oils for varnishes, and in the re- serve or resist pastes of the calico printer. Many double sulphates are known. SULPHOCYANIC ACID, HCNS; hy- drogen sulphocyanate; a monobasic acid obtained by decomposing lead sulpho- cyanate suspended in water, v/ith sul- phuretted hydrogen. It is a colorless, very acid liquid, with a pungent acetous odor, and solidifies at — 12.5° to hexa- gonal plates. Heated to 100° it boils, but the neater part suffers decomposition. It colors ferric salts an intense blood- red, and on this account is used, in the form of any of its soluble salts, to detect traces of iron. SULPHUR. Sulphur, or brimstone, has been known and used from the earliest times. It is found native in mechanical combination with various earthy impuri- ties in most volcanic districts, more par- ticularly in Sicily and the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, and in Louisiana and Texas. The native sulphur of commerce was formerly derived chiefly from Sicily, where it occurs in beds of blue-clayey formation. It is found native in two forms — in trans- parent amber crystals, as virgin sul- phur; or in opaque, lemon-yellow crys- talline masses, as volcanic sulphur. It is found in combination with the different metals, forming metallic sulphides, in nearly every portion of the earth. Zinc blende, iron, and copper pyrites, galena, cinnabar, gray antimony, and realgar, are a few instances of the valuable ores containing sulphur. In its oxidized con- dition, as sulphuric acid, it is also very largely distributed over the mineral kingdom. Sulphur exists in many or- ganic bodies; for example, it is always contained in albumen and the various protein compounds. Native sulphur is purified from the foreign substances mixed with it by distillation in, first, long brick furnaces containing earthen re- torts communicating with chambers of the same material; and afterward in iron retorts communicating with cham-