58 HISTORY OF 



the Mendip mines, seems to present a different picture. " The 

 descent into these is exceedingly difficult and dangerous : for 

 they are not sunk like wells, perpendicularly, but as the cran- 

 nies of the rocks happen to run. The constant method is to 

 Kwing down by a rope placed under the arms, and clamber along 

 by applying both feet and hands to the sides of the narrow pas- 

 sage. The air is conveyed into them through a little passage 

 that runs along the sides from the top, where they set up some 

 turfs, on the lee-side of the hole, to catch and force it down. 

 These turfs being removed to the windy side, or laid over the 

 mouth of the hole, the miners below presently want breath, and 

 faint ; and if sweet-smelling flowers chance to be placed there, 

 they immediately lose their fragrancy, and stink like carrion." 

 An air so putrefying can never be very commodious for respi- 

 ration. 



Indeed, if we examine the complexion of most miners, we 

 shall be very well able to form a judgment of the unwholesome- 

 ness of the place where they are confined. Their pale and sal- 

 low 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 exhalations. But although every mine 

 is unwholesome, all are not equally so. Coal-mines are gener- 

 ally less noxious than those of tin ; tin than those of copper ; 

 but 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 convuls- 

 ed, 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 mineral, 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 mannei 

 all the workmen are killed sooner or later ; first becoming para- 

 lytic, and then dying consumptive : and all this they sustain for 

 the trifling reward of sevenpence a-day. 



But these metallic mines are not so noxious from their owr 

 papours, as from those of the substances with which the ores are 



1 Phil. Trati3 vol. ii. p, b'iS. 



