PROPERTIES OF TIN.

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This ore is called tin pyrites. Its colour is yellowish grey. It hasa metallic lustre, and a fibrous, or lamellated texture; sometimesit exhibits prismatic colours. Tin is comparatively a rare metal,as if is not found in great quantity any where but in Cornwallor Devonshire; though it is likewise met with in the mines ofBohemia, Saxony, the island of Banca, the peninsula of Malacca,and in the East Indies.

PROPERTIES OF TIM.

Tin is of a brilliant white colour, though not quite so whiteas silver. It is one of the lightest of the metals ; its specificgravity, when hammered, being 7.299. It is very fusible,melting at about 410 ° Fahr. By intense heat it is volatilized.It becomes oxidated by a moderate degree of heat. It easilybends and emits a noise, called the crackling of tin. It isexceedingly soft and ductile. It may be reduced to very thinleaves. Tin foil, or tin leaf, which is tin beat out, is aboutr o * go part of an inch thick. It has scarcely any sound. Itresists the action of the air. It crystallizes in rhombs formed ofsmall octahedra. It unites, by fusion, with phosphorus and sul-phur. It does not decompose water alone, or in the cold; buteasily by means of many other bodies. It decomposes the sul-phuric acid, and unites with the sulphureous acid. It decom-poses the nitric acid, and is very soluble in muriatic acid. Nitro-muriatic acid acts on it very readily. It is slightly soluble inthe fluoric and boracic acids. Phosphoric acid attacks it by heat.Tartareous acid has no perceptible action on it. The oxalic andacetic acids dissolve it in small quantities. Thealcalies appear tohave some action on it by heat. It combines with sulphuret ofpotash by fusion. It unites with the greater number of themetals with facility. It decomposes muriate of mercury, andmuriate of ammonia. It causes nitrate of potash to detonate.It takes fire spontaneously in oxigenated muriatic acid gas, andis capable of combining with two different proportions of oxigen.