232 A brief Account of the 
nearly in a state of salivation till disease obliges him to 
desist. 
Considerable quantities of mercury thus volatilised ai^e 
found united and collected in small pools in the spouts 
and gutters on the tops of the buildings. Thus many 
tons of mercury have been dissipated about the town and 
neighbourhood of Birmingham, to the great injury of the 
inhabitants. The poor sweep who has ascended the 
chimneys has been salivated, and the manufacturer has 
sustained considerable loss. 
To preserve a principal part of the mercury thus dis- 
sipated, and to prevent, in a great measure, the terrible 
effects of it on the constitution of the operator, is the ob- 
ject of these remarks, as far as it regards manufacturers. 
By means of an apparatus similar to the plan deline- 
ated in Plate 6, tig. 2, which has been partially and suc- 
cessfully adopted by Mr. Mark Sanders, an eminent 
button-maker of Birmingham, the principal part of the 
mercury may be recovered, and the health of the opera- 
tor greatly preserved. 
A hearth of the usual height is to be erected, in the 
middle of which a capacity for the fire is to be made ; but 
instead of permitting the smoke to ascend into the top A, 
made of sheet or cast iron, through which the mercury is 
volatilised, a flue for that purpose should be conducted 
backwards to the chimney B. An iron plate, thick 
enough to contain heat sufficient to volatilise the mercury, 
is to cover the fire-place at the top of the hearth C. 
There must be an ash-hole, 13, under the fire-place. The 
square space E, seen in the fire-place, is the flue, which 
serves to carry the smoke back under the hearth into the 
chimney B. The door of the fire-place and ash-pit may 
either be in front, as represented in the plate, or at the 
end of the hearth at F, which will perhaps less incom- 
mode the work-people. It would be of great advantage 
