160 Miscellaneous Notices, &c. 
2. Amalgamation. 
upon the common open French furnace; the antique per 
decensum method is the one resorted to. e amalgam is 
placed under a large bell of copper which is encased for each 
operation with unburnt bricks but so as to leave a space sufli- 
ciently great for the qeanaty of charcoal requisite to produce 
the heat oo e heat being a lateral one, the mer- 
cury rises towa rds the mig collects in globules aad falls 
through a abe and tube placed at the bottom of the bell 
into a vessel of water beneath the whole; or the whole bell 
is filled with the vapor of mercury, which is condensed at the 
lower part. Should you wish a drawing of the furnace, it 
will give me pleasure to send you one. The furnace has a 
fanciful appearance, like the tombs of the middle ages: the 
be 
3. Climate of Mexico. 
This country holds out great advantages to those persons 
who suffer from those pulmonic affections, which arise from 
too great action of the lungs on the arterial system, which I 
gn of ae ee Almost every degree of rarity of the 
an be obtained in this country, and certain degrees of it 
can re obtained ckaities: which are almost uniform for tem- 
perature, from one season to another. In the city of Mex- 
ico, breathing is attended with unpleasant sensations to ev- 
* ‘stranger in ascending an elevation, be it great, or even 
mall. The action of the lungs is a labored one, and the 
na - strength attendant upon their imperfect function or 
performance, is very evident. I found there, for the first 
time in my life, a difficulty of breathing at night, frequently 
waking with a sense of want of sufficient breat t this 
place nothing of the latter kind occurs, the elevation fit be- 
ing greater than about three thousand five hundred feet, but 
still | cannot climb the hills and mountains here, as I was 
seat to do in other countries, from deficiency of pulmonic ac- 
tion. Since I have been here, a period of five months, the 
greatest degree of heat in my room has been seventy-two 
