PROPERTIES OF QUICKSILVER. 213 



without any neede of fire to melt it : yet must they vse fire Lll! - 

 to separate it from the silver, as I will shew hereafter. 

 Quicksilver holds no account of other inettalls, but of golde 

 and silver; but contrariwise it doth corrupt them, force and 

 consume them, and flieth from them as much as may be. 

 The which is likewise admirable, and for this cause they put 

 it in earthen vessells, or in beasts skinnes. For if it be put 

 in vessells of copper, of yron, or other mettall, it presently 

 pierceth and corrupts them. And therefore Plinie calleth 

 it the poyson of all things, for that it consumes and spoyles 

 all. We finde quicke-silver in the graves of dead men, 

 which after it hath consumed the bodies, comes foorth pure 

 and whole. There hath beene likewise found in the bones 

 and marrow of men and beasts, who having received it in 

 fume by the mouth and nostrills, congeales within them and 

 pierceth even vnto the bones. Therefore it is a dangerous 

 thing to frequent so perillous and mortall a creature. It 

 hath an other propertie, which is, to runne and make a 

 hundred thousand small droppes, whereof not one is lost, 

 be they never so little, but they returne every way to their 

 liquor. It is almost incorruptible, having nothing in a 

 maner that may consume it. And therefore Plinie calls it 

 the eternall sweate. It hath yet another propertie, that 

 -although it dooth separate gold from copper, and all other 

 mettalls, yet they that will guilde copper, brasse, or silver, 

 use quicke-silver as the meanes of this vnion ; for with the 

 helpe thereof they guilde mettalls. Amongest all the 

 woonders of this strange liquor that seemes to me most 

 woorthy observation, that although it be the weightiest 

 thing in the worlde, yet is it converted into the lightest of 

 the worlde, which is smoake, and sodainely the same smoake 

 which is so light a thing turnes againe into so heavy a sub 

 stance, as is the proper liquor of quicke-silver, whereinto it 

 is dissolved ; for this smoake incountering the mettall on 

 high, being a solide bodie, or comming into a colde region, 



