268 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1 675-6. 



ents, I desired him to make the experiment in and with his own hands, in which 

 it proved successful within somewhat less than a minute.* 



And what makes this incalescence the more considerable is, that being will- 

 ing to husband my mercury, a great part of which had been, as I guessed 

 stolen from me before I employed it, I made these trials but with a drachm at a 

 time, which scarcely amounts in quantity to the largeness of half a middle sized 

 bean ; whereas, if I could have made the experiment with a spoonful or two of 

 quicksilver, and a due proportion of gold, it is probable the heat would have 

 been intense enough, not only to burn ones hand, but perchance to crack a 

 glass phial ; since I have sometimes had of this mercury so subtile, that when I 

 employed but a drachm at a time, the heat made me willing to put it hastily out 

 of my hand. 



I doubt not but what I have related and hinted has made you curious to know 

 somewhat further of this mercury : and I confess, that if there be any truth in 

 what some of the most approved spagyrists have delivered about a solvent of 

 gold that seems akin, and perhaps is not much nobler than one that I had; it 

 seems allowable to expect, that even ours should be of more than ordinary use, 

 both in physic and alchymy. But the misfortune I had of having lost a con- 

 siderable quantity of it, being afterward increased by the almost sudden death of 

 the only operator I trusted in the making of it ; I was altogether discouraged 

 from repeating such a troublesome preparation, especially being diverted by 

 business, sickness, and more pleasing studies. And though I have not forgot- 

 ten some not despicable trials that I made with our mercury, yet since they are 

 not necessary to the question that occasioned this paper, I shall pass them over 

 in silence, and only observe some few things I had almost forgotten to tell you ; 

 namely first, that whereas it is usual to take four, five or six, nay eight or 10 

 parts of common quicksilver to make an amalgam with one of gold, even when 

 both are heated by the fire ; I found our mercury so congruous to that metal, 

 that it would presently embody with no less than an equal weight of it, and pro- 

 duce a pretty hard amalgam or mixture, in which the mercury was so diffused, 

 that the gold had quite lost its colour. Secondly, I shall add what for aught I 

 know has not been yet observed, that this power of penetrating gold and grow- 

 ing hot with it, is so inherent, not to say radicated, in our mercury, that after 

 it had been distilled from gold again and again, I found it retain that property. 

 And lastly, as it may be suspected that this faculty may be quickly lost, (as that 

 of the prepared bononian stone to receive light, has been complained of as not 



* Since this was written, tlie President of the Royal Society, Lord Visct. Brouncker, made the 

 same experiment with some of the same mercury, in his own hand, with good success.— Orig. 



