TOL. II.] PHILOSOPHICAL TBANSACTIONS. 173 



Quicksilver found at the Roots of Plants, and Shells on Inland Mountains. 

 By Sig. Manfredi Septali. N" 27, p- 493. 



In the valley of Lancy, which runs between the mountains of Turin, grows a 

 plant like the doronicum, near the roots whereof is found pure quicksilver 

 running in small grains like pearls. Tlie juice of the plant being expressed and 

 exposed to the air of a clear night, there is to be found as much mercury as it 

 lost of juice.* 



In a voyage he made a few years since to Genoa, when passing over some 

 mountains he found great store of different shells, as the turbinets, echini, and 

 some pearl shells, whereof one had a fair pearl in it, which he says he put into 

 his repository. 



Observations made in a Voyage from Engla7id to the Caribbee Islands. 



N" 27, p. 494. 



This observer having noticed at Deal the great difference in the rusting of 

 iron in such houses as front the sea, in comparison of that effect in the street 

 immediately placed behind the former, he was told that it rusted more at high 

 floods than at neap tides ; the height of the beach hindering the saline exhala- 

 tions. This remark reminded him of the vanity of the argument of M. Ligons 

 and others, viz. That the air of the West Indies was hot and moist, because of 

 the rusting of the iron ; whereas it proceeds from some other principle in the 

 air ; for at the point of Cagua in Jamaica, where it scarcely rains 40 showers in 

 a year, iron rusts as much or more than any where else : in Jamaica it rusts 

 least in rainy weather. 



The steams of the sea are of such a nature, that the sweet meats rotted ; 

 sugar of roses and other lozenges grew moist, though there was no rainy wea- 

 ther. And those pyes and gammons of bacon which had kept well before, after 

 they had been once exposed to the open air, spoiled more in a day or two than 

 in six weeks before. 



At the point Cagua the iron guns of the fort were so corroded that some 

 were become almost useless, being perforated like honeycombs ; and some 

 pounds of rusty iron broken off with a hammer. But the guns which lay in the 

 salt water were not much damaged by rust. 



Many other things receive damage by the air : not only iron rusts, but even 

 linen rots, and silks once exposed to the air rot, without losing their colour. If 

 a lancet be once exposed to the air it will rust, though you presently put it up 

 again ; but if it be never exposed to the air it will hardly rust. 



* This assertion is erroneous} if this plant had not grown in that place, quicksilver would still have 

 been found there. No attraction could subsist between them. 



