182 Effects of Mercurtal Vapour. 
boats of the ship were sent-to her assistance, and about one’ 
hundred and thirty tons of the quicksilver were saved and 
carried On board the Triumph. The mercury, it appears, 
was confined in bladders, the bladders in small barrels, and 
the barrels in boxes. ‘The heat of the weather was at this 
time considerable, aud the bladders, having been wetted in 
the removal from the wreck, soon rotted, and the mercury 
to the amount of several tons was speedily diffused through 
the ship, mixing with the bread, and more or less with the 
other provisions. The effect of this seriself was soon seen, 
he a een! ee of the ship’s crews a well as several <a 
e offic 
thos in. he steward .ge, and on her return to 
fresh attacks were dai y and numerous, till the 13th of Those 
when the Triumph sailed for England. After their fom 
from Cadiz, they experienced fresh breezes from 
and the men being kept constantly on deck, and wy Bali 
tion of the ship being particularly attended to, a sensible de- 
erease in the number daily attacked soon become apparent; 
but nevertheless, many of those already affected became 
worse, and they were under the necessity of removing twenty 
seamen, and the same number of marines, with two sergeants, 
and two corporals,. to a sloop of war, and the transports in 
company, Qn their afrival in Cawsand Bay, near Plymouth, 
on the Sth of July, not one remained on the list for ptyalism. 
The effects of the mercurial atmosphere were not confined 
to the officers and ship’s company ; almost all the stack, con- 
dua of sheep, pigs, goats, and poultry, died from it; mice, 
cats, a dog, and even a canary bird, shared the same fate, 
though the food of the latter. was, kept in a bottle closely 
corked. The surgeon, Mr. Plowman, saw mice come into 
