MERCURY. 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
i'l, 
Colour and lustre of polished silver. 
Evaporates at the heat in which lead melts ; becomes solid 
at 40° below zero of Fahrenheit’s thermometer. 
Soluble in nitrous acid, and also in the vitriolic, when, 
strongly heated . 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Hydrargyrum virgineum. H. nudum, liquidum, ponderosuni, 
coloris nitorisque argentei. Linn. 
Syst. Nat. Gmel. 3. p. 374. 
A heavy, liquid, base metal, of a 
shining silvery colour. 
Hydrargyrum nudum nativum. WoL 
tercd. Miner. 26. 
Mercurius virgineus. Waller. 
Syst. Miner. 2. p. 148. no. 1. 
Native Mercury. . . Cronstedt, 2. p. 586. Kirwan, 
Miner. 2. p. 223. Brongniart f 
Miner. 2. p. 148. no. 1. 
Native mercury, or quicksilver, is found dissemi- 
nated in little globules in different mineral sub- 
stances, from whence it may be easily extricated, 
either by heat or a few strokes with a hammer. It 
