ABOUT QUICKSILVER. 



TN adapting material things to the uses of man, 

 it was doubtless regarded as necessary that one 

 mineral substance should be constituted so as to 

 remain in a liquid state under all ordinary condi- 

 tions. The metal thus provided for us is quick- 

 silver or mercury. We remark that it is liquid 

 under ordinary conditions of temperature, for it 

 should be understood that under extraordinary 

 conditions all metals are liquid. It is well known 

 that the atoms of iron, steel, copper, platinum, etc., 

 which are associated in heavy, refractory masses, 

 are not so immobile, or fixed, as they appear to be, 

 for when submitted to high temperatures they run 

 like water. Subject quicksilver to a temperature 

 sufficiently high to render iron liquid, and it in- 

 stantly becomes vapor, and will float away like 

 steam. Iron, when subjected to a heat capable of 

 liquefying platinum, will itself become vaporized, 

 and platinum in its turn is vaporized by a higher 

 heat, and so all the metals are physically changed 

 under the influence of heat. There is not a solid 

 substance upon our globe, not a mineral or metal, 

 that has not existed probably for millions of years 



