- pearance of arsenic.—I also understood that some tartarized
antimony had been given; I tried the tests with a solution of that substance, and the precipitate had not the appearance which arsenic, if present, would put on.
Do you happen to know who was the first person who discovered these tests?—I believe Mr. Hume discovered that with nitrate of silver.
Do you know Dr. Marcett?—Yes, I know him from his writings, to be a clever man.
You don't happen to know whether he first discovered this mode?—No.
Do you know of any mode of managing any fluid substance, in which arsenic has been mixed, so as to produce arsenic in substance?—By evaporating the solution containing arsenic, and by exposing it to heat in a close vessel, you will produce it in a white solid state; and by mixing the residuum of a solution of arsenic with an inflammable substance, arsenic will be sublimed in its metallic state by the same process.
The result of that experiment would not have deceived any one in the world?—It would not certainly; but there was such a small quantity left, after my other experiments, that it was not tried.
It would have produced it, so that any person would know the thing to be arsenic?—Certainly.
You mix the fluid, in which the arsenic is, with an alkali, when you seek to re-produce the mineral in substance? you mix the solution with an alkali, don't you?—No; there is no occasion for an alkali.
You put it in solution and expose it to heat?—If the arsenic be in solution, it must be evaporated; and by doing that which I have before stated with the residuum, it will be produced in its metallic state.
With respect to the other tests, do you consider those as conclusive and infallible?—Yes, in the way I used them.
This business, of course, must have made a great bustle in Falmouth, when people first talked about it?—Yes, Sir.
