318 USES OF QUICKSILVER, &C, 



running state, and quite pure, as it is said (though this may be 

 doubted, from the facility with which mercury dissolves gold, and 

 silver, and other metals), in the mines of Idria, Almaden, &c. . 

 it is more frequently, however, imbedded in calcareous earths, or 

 clays of different colours, from which it may be separated either 

 by trituration and lotion, the smaller globules coalescing by mu. 

 tual contact into larger ; or by distillation. The running native 

 mercury, which requires no process for its extraction is more es. 

 teemed, and thought to have some peculiar properties which do 

 not belong to that obtained by simple distillation, though they both 

 come under the denomination of virgin mercury. Mercury mine- 

 ralised by sulphur, is called cinnabar, which some say is an Afri- 

 can word denoting the blood of a dragon *. Cinnabar is the most 

 common ore of mercury ; it is found in an earthy form resembling 

 red ochre, sometimes in an indurated state, and, though gene, 

 rally red, it hath been observed of a yellowish or blackish cast , 

 ft is mostly opaque, but some pieces are as transparent as a ruby. 

 This ore consists of mercury and sulphur combined together in 

 different proportions ; some cinnabars yielding as far as seven, 

 others not three parts in eight of their weight of mercury. Sulphur 

 and mercury, being both volatile in a small degree of heat, would 

 rise together in distillation, unless some substance, such as quick- 

 lime or iron filings, was added to the cinnabar, which by its supe- 

 rior affinity, unites itself with and detains the sulphur : whilst the 

 mercury, not being able to support the heat, is elevated in vapour, 

 and condensed in various ways in different works. It sometimes 

 happens, that the coarser cinnabarine ores are so much mixed 

 with calcareous earth, that they require no addition in order to ef. 

 feet the separation of mercury from sulphur ; this is the case in 

 the mines of Almaden. The finer kinds of cinnabar, bearing B 

 much higher price than mercury itself, are never wrought for mer- 

 cury, but either used in medicine, or, when levigated, under the 

 name of vermilion, ia painting; and often by the women as a sub. 

 stitute for carmine, which is prepared from cochineal. Native 

 cinnabars are often mixed with small portions of arsenical, vitriolic, 

 or earthy substances, whence they become of uncertain or dan. 

 gerous efficacy in medicine ; for this reason Geoffroy recommends 

 the use of factitious cinnabar ; and the native, though formerly in 

 great repute, has been left out of modern dispensatories. The 

 finest cinnabar we know of is brought from Japan, though there 

 Vllmont dc Bomarc. 



