346 On Chinese Mercurial Preparations. (May, 
salt and the outer dish with pieces of ignited charcoal. After half 
an hour he added more charcoal, and urged the fire by fanning, 
applying his ear from time to time, in order to listen, he said, for 
a hissing and bubbling noise. This he watched for, and announced 
the occurrence of with alchemical charlatanery. He said the char- 
coal already in the furnace might be allowed to burn out, and 
added, that, in conducting his process during hot weather, it would 
be proper to draw off the water as it became warm, replacing it by 
colder: in the then temperature of the atmosphere (48°) it was un- 
necessary to do so. 
He returned next day, bringing as a standard specimen of the 
product from the process which he was conducting, the salt which is 
contained in the vial No. 4, and proceeded to remove the charcoal 
ashes and the salt, and to lift up the inverted dish. The product 
was collected upon the plate, some of it white, some discoloured, 
and also some guicksilver not at all oxidized. That being removed, 
the whole was collected, and found to weigh 190 gr. The product 
(as will be seen from the specimen contained in the vial No, 2) bore 
comparison with the standard preparation but very ill; and he said 
that, in manufacturing the article for sale, he had no other resource 
on such occasions but the repetition of the process until he succeeded 
better than in the present instance he had done. He showed him- 
self to be considerably disappointed by the result of this process, 
and requested to be allowed to repeat it with his own materials, ex- 
cept the nitrate of potash, which was supplied him. He went 
through every step of the same process with accurate adherence ; 
and in this instance the experiment succeeded ; as from the plate, 
and the sides of the dish unoccupied by the mixture, by a feather 
and scraping, two drachms of a white powder mixed with fine 
needle-like crystals, were removed. ‘l'his approached the standard 
pretty nearly, and appeared to be altogether as white and pure as any 
specimens which I have had occasion to see in or from the shops. 
The preparation of the red nitric oxide of quicksilver being also 
a branch of his business, I requested to be allowed to see the diffe- 
rent steps in the process for that likewise. His furnace was the same 
as before; but his vessel in this instance was a cast-iron pan, of a 
size proportioned to it, and the description and shape of what ob- 
tains the name of a tatch in these countries. Before putting the 
ingredients into it, he allowed it to have become thoroughly hot by 
bits of charcoal under it. His ingredients were— 
Sulphate of alumine, 
Nitrate of petash, 
Quicksilver. 
Each 1-920 gr. (4.0z.) He fused the first by itself, and added to 
it the nitrate of potash, and then the quicksilver. His fire was now 
stronger than in the last process ; and after the ingredients had been 
exposed uncovered toa quick action of it during a few minutes, the 
