26 Account of the Process of Amalgamation 
number being at one view inspected, the tray is overturned into 
the proper receptacle, and is instantly ready to receive a fresh 
supply. 
With respect to the quantities of gold and silver which have 
been obtained by the Government from the mines of this district, 
and coined at Kremnitz, Delius in his work upon Mining has 
calculated that from the year 1672 to 1680, the single royal 
mine of Piberstollen at Schemnitz gave 427,600 marks of silver, 
and 2,657 marks of gold. In 1690 the gold from Schemnitz 
amounted to a little more than 1872 marks coined into 132,425 
ducats. In 1779, 2429 marks of gold, and 92,267 of silver were 
brought to the mint from the whole district. And by a state- 
nzent published at Vienna in the Vaterléndische Blatter of 1808, 
it appears that the whole produce of the mines of Upper Hungary, 
between the years 1797 and 1806, amounted to 
16,821 marks 4 loth 29 dr. 27 gr. of gold, 
658,519 0 52 19 of silver, 
135,443 centner 83 perfunds of lead. : 
Thewhole value inthe currency of the country being16,728,368 fl, 
22 kr. But I am not quite certain what mines are included in 
this estimate. 
1V. Account of the Process of Amalgamation used at Hals- 
briick near Freyberg in Saxony, for the Extraction of Gold 
and Silver from other Ores. By Ricuarp Bricur, M.D.* 
Tus operation of amalgamation was first used in the mines of _ 
South America, where it was introduced between the years 1560 
and 1570. ‘There, however, the process was at first conducted 
in a very imperfect manner, and was attended with a great loss of 
mercury as well as silver. In that country it underwent succes- 
sive modifications and improvements, and it was there first dis- 
covered, that a very effectual method of conducting it was by 
boiling the mercury and the ore together in water. 
Although proposals had been more than once made to the 
Court of Austria, it was not till 1784 that the method of ex- 
tracting silver by the aid of mercury was adopted in Europe, at 
which time Baron Born was authorized to make extensive trial 
of its efficacy in the mines of Hungary. The process as esta- 
blished by him at Glashutte near Schemnitz, and afterwards in- 
troduced into the other mines of Hungary, Transylvania, and 
3ohemia, was in substance very nearly that which is employed at 
Freyberg, except that for some time the formation of the amal- 
gam took place under the influence of heat, the mixture being 
* From the same work as the preceding article. 
put 
