: be a fe Maenesia. Calcined Magnesi : 
Let carbonate of magnesia be put into a erueible and in 
heat for two hours; then put up in close stopped glass vessels. 
this process the carbonate of magnesia is freed from its acid at 
water. ee : ee eS 
~ In medicine, it is used for the same general purposes as the carbo- 
nate. In certain affections of the stomach, accompanied with much. 
flatulence, magnesia is preferable, both because it contains more 
. 
. 
magnesia in a of .its- 
often a very lesome consequence, whi 08 
is employed in these complaints. = 
Mercury. Quicksilver. 
_ Mercury is a mineral fluid about fourteen or fifteen times heavy 
_than water : it is so remarkably thin, that it requires the intense c 
- of 40° below 0 of Fahrenheit to render it solid. — 
_ Quicksilver is sometimes found in a native stat 
of India, South America, Hungary, &c. but m L 
with metals, stone or other substances. Ee “ 
' Mercury taken into the stomach in its metallic state has no action — 
on the body, except what arises from weight or bulk. It is not poi- 
sonous, as was vulgarly supposed, but perfectly inert. But in its va- 
rious states of combination it produces certain sensible effects. It 
_ quiekens the circulation, and increases all the secretions and excre- 
tions. TES < . se 
Mercury is the “ king cure-all” of the mineral practice, and it is 
employed by them to answer nearly all intentions. According to 
circumstances, the habit of the patient, the temperature in which he 
is kept, the nature of the preparation, and the quantity in which it is" 
_ exhibited, its effects are indeed various ; it sometimes increases one 
secretion more particularly, sometimes another ; but its most charac- 
teristic effect is an increased flow of saliva, which it generally ex- 
Cites, if given in sufficient quantity. It has been considered the 
_ Most general evacuant belonging to the materia medica. = 
_ In the mineral practice, mercury, in some of its preparations, Is 
' 1. Asan errhine. The sub-sulphate of mercury. 
2. Asa pene ing Mercury in almost any form. _ 
3. Asa cathartic. The sub-muriate of mercury (Calomel.)  —_ 
_ 4.°As a diuretic. The oxydes, the muriate, and sub-muriate, 
_ combined with other diuretic. Pe caer ag 
5. Asa sudorific.. Calomel conjoined with asudorific regimen. 
_ 6. As an emmenagogue. — e 
“%. As an astringent. Muriate! of mercury, ‘(corrosive 
Asa stimulant. Corrosive sublin 
