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eighth os powdered sulphur; which easily adheres to themoist grains. The grains, enveloped with the sulphur,are put again into the crucible, and the fire kept gentlefor some time, that the silver, before it melts, may bethoroughly penetrated by the sulphur : if the fire washastily urged, great part of the sulphur would be dissipated,without acting upon the metal.
If to sulphurated silver in fusion, pure silver be added,the latter falls to the bottom, and forms there a distinctfluid, not miscible with the other any more than water iswith oil. The particles of gold, having no affinity to thesulphurated silver, join themselves to the pure silver, where-ever they come in contact with it, and are thus trans-ferred from the former into the latter, more or less per-fectly according as the pure silver was more or less tho-roughly diffused through the mixt. It is for this usethat a part of the granulated matter was reserved.
The sulphurated mass being brought into perfect fusion,and kept melted for near an hour, in a close coveredcrucible, one third of the reserved grains is thrown in,and as soon as this is melted, the whole is well stirred,that the fresh silver may be distributed through the mixtto collect the gold from it: the stirring is performed witha wooden rod : an iron one would be corroded by thesulphur, so as to deprive the mixt of its due quantity ofthe sulphur, and likewise render the subsequent purificationof the silver more troublesome. The fusion being con-tinued an hour longer, another third of the unsulphuratedgrains is added, and an hour after this, the remainder ;after which the fusion is further continued for some time,the matter being stirred at least every half hour from thebeginning to the end, and the crucible kept closely coveredin the intervals.
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