38 A HISTORY OF 



placed vhere, they immediately lose their fragrancy, and stink 'ikt 

 carrion." An air so putrifying can never be very commodious for 

 respiration. 



lodeed, if we examine the complexion of most miners, we shall be 

 very well able to form a judgment of the unwholesomeness of the 

 place where they are confined. Their pale and sallow looks show how 

 much the air is damaged by passing through those deep and winding 

 ways, that are rendered humid by damps, or warmed with noxious ex- 

 halations. But although every mine is unwholesome, all are not equal- 

 ly so. Coal-mines are generally less noxious than those of tin ; tin 

 than those of copper ; but of all, none are so dreadfully destructive as 

 those of quicksilver. At the mines near the village of Idra, nothing 

 can adequately describe the deplorable infirmities of such as fill the 

 hospital there ; emaciated and crippled, every limb contracted or con- 

 vulsed, and some in a manner transpiring quicksilver at every pore. 

 There was one man, says Dr. Pope,* who was not in the mines above 

 half a year, and yet whose body was so impregnated with this mine- 

 ral, that putting a piece of brass money in his mouth, or rubbing it 

 between his fingers, it immediately became as white as if it had been 

 washed over with quicksilver. In this manner all the workmen are 

 killed sooner or later ; first becoming paralytic, and then dying con- 

 sumptive : and all this they sustain for the trifling reward of seven- 

 pence a day. 



But these metallic mines are not so noxious from their own vapours, 

 as from those of the substances with which the ores are usually united, 

 such as arsenic, cinnabar, bitumen, or vitriol. From the fumes of these, 

 variously combined, and kept inclosed, are produced those various 

 damps, that put on so many dreadful forms, and are usually so fatal. 

 Sometimes those noxious vapours are perceived by the delightful fra- 

 grance of their smell,t somewhat resembling the pea-blossom in bloom, 

 from whence one kind of damp has its name. The miners are not 

 deceived, however, by its flattering appearances, but as they thus have 

 timely notice of its coming, they avoid it while it continues, which is 

 generally during the whole summer season. Another shows its ap- 

 proach by the burning of the candles, which seem to collect their flame 

 into a globe of light, and thus gradually lessen, till they are quite ex- 

 tinguished. From this also, the miners frequently escape ; however, 

 such as have the misfortune to be caught in it, either swoon away, and 

 are suffocated, or slowly recover in excessive agonies. Here also is 

 a third, called the fulminating damp, much more dangerous than either 

 of the former, as it strikes down all before it like a flash of gunpow 

 der, without giving any warning of its approach. But there is still 

 another, more deadly than all the rest, which is found in those places 

 where the vapour has been long confined, and has been, by some ac- 

 cident, set free. The air rushing out from thence, always goes upon 

 deadly errands ; and scarce any escape to describe the symptoms of its 

 operations. 



Some colliers in Scotland, working near an old mine that had been 

 )'Dg closed up, happened, inadvertently, to open a hole into it, fro*t 



. Phil. Trans, vol. i'.. p. 578. f Phil. Trans, vol. ii. p. 375 



