Meaning
MAS'TICOT, n. Calcined white lead; yellow oxyd of lead. Lead exposed to the air while melting, is covered with a gray, dusky pellicle. This pellicle carefully taken off, is reduced by agitation to a greenish gray powder, inclining to yellow. This oxyd, separated from the grains of lead by sifting, and exposed to a more intense heat, sufficient to make it red hot, assumes a deep yellow color. In this state it is called massicot. Massicot, slowly heated by a moderate fire, takes a beautiful red color, and obtains the name of minium.
Massicot is sometimes used by painters, and it is used as a drier in the composition of ointments and plasters.
