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that the lips and tongue are blillered and fcorched upon 

 tailing it. 



The miners are well acquainted with the virtue of this 

 water in changing the metals ; but they alfo ufe it as a 

 medicine : whatever ficknefs they are feized with, they firft 

 attempt its cure by a large dofe of this water, which ufually 

 both vomits and purges them very briflcly. 



They alfo ufe it in diforders of the eyes, in fome of which 

 it muft be of great power ; but in others, it is very im- 

 proper ; fo that upon the whole they do more harm than 

 good with it. 



The copper produced from thefe waters is valued by the 

 people much beyond any other copper, as being much more 

 duftile, and running eafier in the fire : the people in the 

 neighbourhood have many veflels of it ; but it is to be 

 obferved, that its duftility and hardnefs increafe after it 

 is taken out of the water ; for while imraerfed in it, it is 

 friable. 



It is obferved, that after great rains the fprings are 

 always fuller than at other times, and the virtues of the water 

 confiderably lefs. 



A pound of this water, when ftrongeft, evaporated over 

 a gentle lire, becomes firft turbid, and afterwards depoCts 

 a yellowifli fediment, which evaporated to drynefs, weighs 

 two fcruples and a half ; and when warm water is poured 

 upon this and filtered, fix grains of ycllowith earth will be 

 left in the filtre ; and the greenifh folution being again 

 evaporated to a pellicle, and the operation being feveral 

 times repeated, fomewhat more than two fcruples of a blueifh- 

 g^een vitriol will be feparated in fmall cryftals. 



A fmall quantity of oil of tartar being added to a pound 

 of this water, the whole becomes turbid, and on filtration 

 leaves a large refiduum in the filtre, which dried, weighs 

 about two fcruples and a half, and is found to be a cupreous 

 vitriol, with a fmall mixture of a neutral fait. If a pint of 

 this water be put into a bottle, and a fmall piece of iron 

 thrown into it, bubbles will appear on the iron, which will 

 gradually be changed to a copper colour. On the fecond 

 day, the water will be turbid, and afterwards whitifti, and 

 white filaments will gather about the bottom and fides of 

 the glafs, and about the iron, which will appear throughout 

 of a coppery colour. From thefe experiments, we may 

 eafily underftand what the true nature of the water is ; that 

 it contains a large quantity of vitriol of copper, which it 

 probably owes to a folution of that metal, by means of the 

 acid of the common pyrites and water : when this is known, 

 the effefts are not difficultly accounted for, there being no 

 real change of one metal into another ; but the true ftate of 

 the cafe being, that the particles of one metal are diiTolved 

 and carried away, and thofe of another metal depofited in 

 their place. A water thus impregnated is a menftruum 

 capable of diflblving iron, and in the folution of that metal 

 becomes fo weakened as to let go the copper it before con- 

 tained in fmall parcels. This is feen to be the cafe, by 

 examining the changed metal while it lies in the water, the 

 copper then appearing not a foft malleable and even mafs, 

 but a congeries of granules clofely placed together, and 

 refembling the fmall granules, or cva, in the fpawn of fifties ; 

 and it is very friable and fragile while in this ftate. 



This folution of one metal, and depofition of the particles 

 of another in its place, is a thing very famihar in chemiftry, 

 and is feen every day in numerous inftances ; but in none fo 

 familiar as in a like cafe, or folution of iron and copper in 

 the fame menftruum. Thus, if a piece of copper be dif- 

 fblved in aqua fortis, and when this folution is perfefted a 

 piece of iron be thrown into the liquor, the fame thing will 

 be feen that is in this fpring, for the iron will be diffolvcd, 



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and the copper which was before diflblved in the menftruum 

 will be flowly precipitated and depofited in the place of it. 

 Phil. Tranf. N°479, p. 355, 4:c. See on this fubjed the 

 articles Copper and Vitrioi,. 



ZIMEX, a word ufed by fome of the old chemical 

 writers for verdigrife. 



ZIMITI, in Geography, a town of South America, in 

 the province of Carthagena, near a lake ; 60 miles S. of 

 Santa Fe de Bogota. N. lat. 1° ^2'. W. long. 74"^ 6'. 



ZIMMER, an ifland of the Red fea, much fmaller than 

 Foo/ht, (which fee,) without inhabitants, and without 

 water; though, by the cifterns that now remain, and are 

 fixty yards fquare, hewn out of the folid rock, there is 

 reafon to imagine that this was once a place of confequence : 

 rain, at certain feafons, falls here in abundance. It is 

 covered with young plants of rack-tree, whofe property it 

 is to vegetate in fait water. It has alfo a confiderable 

 number of Saiel, or Acacia-trees. In this ifland there are 

 antelopes and hyxnas ; and hence we may infer that water, 

 without which thefe animals could not fubfitt, is found in 

 fome fubterranean caves or cUfts of the rocks, unknown to 

 the Arabs or filhermen. Mr. Bruce found here plenty of 

 the large ftiell-fifh called Bifler and Surrumbac, but no 

 other. Foofht bears from this ifland 8 miles N.W. by 

 N. iW. N. lat. 1 6*7'. 



ZiMMER, in Commerce, a term ufed for reckoning in 

 Germany, and denoting 40 pieces. 



ZIMMERBACH, in Geography, a town of France, in 

 the department of the Upper Rhine ; 5 miles W. of 

 Colmar. 



ZIMMERMAN, John George, in Biography, an 

 eminent phyfician and mifcellaneous writer, was born in 

 1728 at Brug, in the canton of Bern. Having completed 

 his preparatory education at Bern, and chofen the medical 

 profeflion, he placed himfelf in the univerfity of Gottingen, 

 under the tuition of the celebrated Haller ; and on gra- 

 duating in 1 75 1, the fubjeft of his thefis was the doftrine 

 of irritability. His refpeft for Haller was teftified in the 

 account he gave of him in the journal of Neufchatel, printed 

 in 1752. Having married at Bern a relation of Haller, he 

 fettled as a phyfician in his native town. The retirement 

 of his fituation aff^orded him an opportunity of compofing 

 many pieces in profi and verfe ; and in 1756 he publiftied 

 the firft flcetch of his popular work " On Solitude." This 

 publication was followed by an effay " On National Pride," 

 in 1758 ; by his work " On the Experience of Medicine," 

 in 1763, and feveral others ; and by " A Treatife on Dy- 

 fentery," in 1766. In 1768 he accepted an invitation to 

 occupy the vacant poll of phyfician to the king of England 

 for Hanover, whither he removed. In this fituation, the 

 accumulation of bufinefs furniftied in fome meafure an 

 antidote to that conftitutional irritabihty of temper, and 

 tendency to hypochondriacal complaints, which in the 

 retirement of a fmall town had rendered him unhappy ; and 

 having occaiion to place himfelf under the medical care of 

 a furgeon at Berlin, on account of a local difeafe under 

 which he laboured, his removal thither in 1 771, and the 

 notice that was taken of him by feveral perfons of diftinc- 

 tion, and even by the king, were favourable both to his 

 health and fpirits, and of courfe to his happinefs. Having 

 loft his firft wife, he formed a fecond matrimonial conneftion 

 in 1782 ; and to this union he was indebted for many of 

 thofe comforts which counterbalanced and alleviated his 

 affliftions. His remaining years were chiefly devoted to the 

 completion of his work " On Solitude," which was pub- 

 liftied in four volumes. In the year 1786, Zimmerman was 

 fcnt for to attend the great Frederick in hislaft illnefs; and 

 Z ; this 



