A N T I M O N Y : ITS HISTORY, CHEMISTRY, MINERALOGY ...

THE METALLURGY OF ANTIMONY.
CHAPTER I.
THE HISTORY OF ANTIMONY.
THE natural sulphide of antimony was known to the people of
ancient times.* It was used by them as medicine, and as an article
of toilet "by women to paint their eyebrows with.
In St Jerome's translation of the Hebrew of Ezekiel xxiii. 40 we
read, " circumlinisti stibio oculos tuos," and in the second book of
Kings ix. 30 we find, "Porro Jezebel introiter eius audite depixit
oculos suos stibio." The latter passage, as translated by Cheyne and
Driver, runs thus, " set her eyes in paint (literally, antimony)."
The Hebrew and Arabic word for antimony is " kohl," which was
altered to "alcool" or "alkohol" in other languages; thus the
Spanish translation of the above passage from Ezekiel is, " alcoholaste
tus ojos." As a matter of fact, the word ."alcohol" was, in the
Middle Ages, used to designate anything in the form of fine powder;
and it was only at later periods that it was used to mean spirit
of wine.
Dioscorides called this metal orifi/u, and mentioned that it was
known also by irkarvo^OaXfxov (meaning " eye-expander "), yvvatKetov
(meaning " womankind"), etc. He also mentioned that the roasting of
crude antimony could be done in a current of air under moderate
heat until it burnt, and that if it were heated more strongly it would
melt like lead. This statement might suggest the idea that he was
acquainted with the metal itself.
The term " stibium" was given to the metal by Pliny, and the
term " antimoninm" by the Latin author Geber; but both these
* M. Berthelot has made a curious observation in regard to a vase found at
Tello Chaldeaby M. de Saizec, which was cast in metallic antimony (R&v.
1387, 3 e , t. ix.).
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