Antimony

If you have never heard of antimony, it’s probably because it’s not one of elements you come across often at school, or even hear about much in the outside world. Its history, however, shows that its discovery in ancient times had real significance, but has seemed to be a mysterious metal to the mainstream world.

The name ‘antimony’ is derived from the Greek words ‘anti’ and ‘monos’, together meaning ‘not alone’. This references the fact that antimony is almost always found in nature in compounds, and almost never as the element itself.

Antimony (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antimony-4.jpg)

Its uses have been recorded as early as in Ancient Greece, where it is thought to have been a component of Greek fire, an incendiary weapon which was used in military battles. The specific antimony component in ‘Greek fire’ was antimony sulphide, which reacts vigorously with oxygen, fitting in with the description of Greek fire as being very dangerous and destructive.

12th century illustration of a Byzantine ship using Greek fire in around the year 821 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greekfire-madridskylitzes1.jpg)

In Ancient Rome, however, antimony (in Latin, ‘stibium’, which is the reason for the chemical symbol Sb) was used medicinally for dermatological illnesses and burns, clearly very different from its use in Ancient Greece. In the world of medicine, antimony’s use in history has extended much further than dermatology, a fact particularly interesting considering that the element is in fact toxic. The symptoms of antimony poisoning are similar (but generally milder) than the symptoms of arsenic poisoning. However, some of its historical medicinal applications found ways to get around this significant limitation, and in some cases even use its toxicity for the benefit of medicinal technique.

Antimony was used widely as an emetic (a substance which induces nausea) in the 18th century. A piece of antimony would typically be left in a goblet of wine for a period of a few hours, allowing the wine to absorb some of the antimony which could then be used as an emetic, while at the same time not absorbing so much antimony that the patient would be poisoned. Although this and similar techniques were commonly used at the time with extreme caution, there were cases reported of people being poisoned by the medicine that was meant to help them, one famous case of this being the death of the composer Mozart. Although the true cause of Mozart’s death is not known and has several theories surrounding it, one theory involves antimony poisoning. Doctors had prescribed

Mozart antimony tartrate, and it is thought that he took a dangerous quantity of this compound, leading to his death. His condition just before his death included symptoms of ‘severe vomiting’ and a fever, consistent with the symptoms of antimony poisoning.

You may be thinking, though, that these symptoms of vomiting and fever could be attributed to a variety of illnesses, for example the flu, and wouldn’t immediately have been considered to be the result of poisoning. This ambiguity over the cause of symptoms was used by criminals during the 19th and 20th centuries. The criminals would poison their victims with antimony, ultimately with the hopes that their deaths would be passed off as the result of a bad stomach infection instead of preplanned murder. Since the toxicity of the element was not as famous as the toxicity of arsenic, for example, the murder cases using antimony were sometimes not solved for long periods of time, with the deaths being ruled as unlucky accidents.

The most interesting (and arguably most random) use of antimony, however, is one that was used in the Middle Ages - the reusable laxative. An antimony pellet would be ingested, the toxicity of the antimony disturbing the bowels during digestion. Finally the pellet would then be egested, and could then be recovered and reused. It was this reusable property of the antimony pellets that led them to be nicknamed ‘perpetual pills’.

‘Perpetual pills’ - reusable antimony laxatives from the Middle Ages (https://dangerousminds.net/comments/perpetual _pills _ the _ reusa ble _ laxatives _ of _ the _ middle _ ages)

The current-day uses of antimony are very different from the historic uses discussed and could be said to be much less interesting - today antimony is commonly added to metals to create alloys which increases the hardness of the metal. Antimony sulphide is often used in the camouflage paint, whereas antimony trioxide is used in flame-proofing compounds. It is even used in semiconductors, showing the variety of uses in the present day.

Although it might not be the most well known element, antimony’s uses have been valued by many people in history, and by many of us today, even if we don’t know it. With the variety of applications, it could be interesting to see some of the historic uses in the present day. Maybe not the reusable laxative though.

By Ingrid Loynes

Sources: https://dangerousminds.net/comments/perpetual _pills _ the _ reusable _ laxatives _ of _ the _ middle _ ages

Book : ‘The Periodic Table’ by Paul Parsons and Gail Dixon