1032 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June 22, 1872, 
Metals have received much attention at the hands of 
the Chinese, -who revel in alloys, and love the cheap 
thunder of gong-metal, and the musical ring of pieces 
of silver. Copper is regarded by Chinese writers as 
more friendly to the human constitution than iron, and 
they prefer the former metal for the making of cooking 
and washing vessels. Malachite is well known to them, 
and sulphate of copper, or Shih-tan, is described in their 
works, although never met with in Hankow. Steel 
needles dipped in a solution of sulphate of copper have 
been sometimes sold to foreigners as curiosities in the 
way of well-tempered metallic copper. Although aware 
of this decomposition of one metal by anofher, the 
Chinese have misunderstood it, and they have been led 
into the assertion that one metal undergoes conversion 
into the other. Verdigris, a basic acetate of copper, is 
easily procured by the action of vinegar on plates of 
copper. Vinegar is the only pure acid substance known 
to the Chinese. They use it as a solvent: and by 
sprinkling it upon minerals exposed to the fire, they 
bring about oxidation and solution of these substances. 
It is curious that they have never learnt to distil acetic 
acid from their strong but rank vinegar. Verditer, a 
carbonate of copper, is largely made by the Chinese in 
Hupeh, and is mixed with rice-starch for some reason 
best known to themselves. It occurs in small, thin, 
square, pale green pieces, and is used in dyeing shagreen 
cases for pipes and spectacles. There is a process 
described in a Chinese work by which wood to bc‘placed 
in water is preserved by previously dressing it with ace¬ 
tate of copper solution. This is something like the 
Kyanizing process, in which corrosive sublimate is simi¬ 
larly employed. Iron, a metal abundantly bestowed 
upon China, yields oxides and the sulphate of iron in 
various forms. The black oxide of iron dissolved in 
-vinegar was formerly employed bv the Chinese as an 
ink. The characters were written with this solution, 
and the pencil, dipped in the ordinary Chinese or Indian 
ink, was used to irace over the characters on the other 
side. I he red sesquioxide ot iron is made on a large 
scale by heating impure sulphate of iron to a great heat. 
The hotter the. fire the better the colour, so the Pen 
l a au says. I his rouge is used to colour porcelain, and 
to redden walls of temples and palaces. Sulphate of 
iron is made in a crude and cheap form by mixing- 
together sulphurous coal and hepatic iron pyrites, and 
con ering the heap with mortar and mud to prevent the 
access of .air. . Spontaneous chemical action occurs,-and 
the mass which results is treated with water, and the 
mercury is acted upon by vinegar. This must issue ins 
the formation of white lead, a salt made at many places* 
in China, and largely used as a paint and as a face- 
powder. It would be curious if it should turn out, as 
may be expected, that an amalgam of lead and mercury ’ 
the latter being in very small proportion, is much mor & 
readily acted upon than the fine metal by vinegar* 
White lead was known in the days of the Great Yii, tho 
engineer-monarch, and most certainly during the Sluing 
dynasty. Shin-chau in western Hunan, and Kwang-sin- 
fu in Kiangsi, being both in the midst of rich mineral 
tracts of country, have been long famous for their chemi¬ 
cals. The most interesting and important substances of 
all are the mercurial preparations made for ages by' the- 
Chinese. Mercury, called “ water silver,” the exact 
equivalent of the Latin and Greek names for quicksilver, 
has had a mysterious attraction for the Chinese al¬ 
chemists. Its liquid and volatile character, the beautiful 
colours of its compounds, and the powerful effect of its- 
preparations, all tend to render it the hope of the 
chemist in search of omnipotent gold or immortal drug. 
Cinnabar, the most frequent ore of mercury', is also 
made artificially on a large scale in Hankow and other- 
places, by fusing a mixture of sulphur (two catties) and 
mercury (one catty 7 ) and subliming it. To give a. 
sample of Chinese philosophy, it may be observed that 
one author quoted in the Pen TV au says that by the ab¬ 
sorption of the spermatic (or Yang ) principle, a crud© 
matrix is produced, which in a period of 200 years be¬ 
comes pure cinnabar. This, in 200 years, becomes lead; 
in 200 years more it is silver, and in 200 y r ears more of 
gestation it becomes pure gold. The nature of this- 
sulphide of mercury was thoroughly understood by the- 
early Chinese operators. Tho power of raising men to 
the rank of the eight jolly 7 immortals called Sien, or- 
“ genii,” was asserted of this mysterious substance,, 
which defied heat and came forth a pure and mobile metal. 
They called it the Sien-tan, or “ philosopher’s stone,” 
a name perhaps more properly assigned to a substance- 
formed by 7 the mixture of some eight substances. More 
than ten sorts of cinnabar are described in old works. 
That from Shin-chau-fu, in Hunan, has had the greatest 
reputation, and given its name to this chemical. Vermi¬ 
lion is made in much tho same way in Hankow as the 
cinnabar which has the same chemical composition. The- 
crystalline sublimate formed on the sides .of the vessel is 
carefully powdered between two stones turned by the- 
hand, a little water being added from time to time. The 
pasty mass is then carefully levigated by 7 mixture with 
i 1 ' stalllz ' 3cl oufc - This is sold at a pure water, decanted, and dried upon tiles in the sun, in. 
d _! 1 S muC ? used as a _ d T°> af ter mix- just tho same way as described by Dr. Williams in his 
ture with galls or other substances. It makes a very 
good disinfectant for sewers, urinals and the night-stools 
of the sick-room. A preparation of great beauty 7 , called 
lieh-h ic a-Jen , is made by r acting upon sheets of iron with 
vinegar. It resembles the citrate of iron in its appear- 
a ?- ce ’ ifte Chinese seem to be aware of some sort of 
identity of the colouring matter of the blood with these 
iron preparations recommended in diseases of the blood. 
Lead is scarce in China, comparatively. It is spoken 
of as the black metal,” and is regarded as masculine, 
and the progenitor of the five principal metals. Lead, 
zinc, antimony and pewter are not carefully distin¬ 
guished. I here was formerly considerable communica¬ 
tion between Persia and China. Persia sent lead, zinc, 
ores of silv er and amalgams to China. Argentan, or 
German silver, called Peh-t wag, is an alloy of copper, 
arsenic and zinc, largely' prepared for use in making 
tobacco-pipes. The use of sal ammoniac as a test for 
these alloys, showing them to contain copper and to bo 
not silver, is another item of chemistry met with in the 
Pen 1 a an, the manual of the Chinese chemical manufac¬ 
turer. Acetate of lead is a salt much extolled by' Taouist 
writers as a styptic remedy. A plan of making a salt, 
.supposed to be an acetate, is given in the Pen TVau, bv 
which an amalgam of fourteen parts of lead 
‘ Chinese Commercial Guide.’ The more patiently and 
carefully the cinnabar is powdered and washed, the finer- 
is the colour of the resulting vermilion. It is packed, 
in glazed black paper, and exported in large quantities. 
TEthiops mineral is a common drug, used in medicine as- 
an alterative, and made by melting two Chinese ounces of 
sulphur and then adding to it half a catty 7 of mercury. 
The mass is taken out, powdered and sublimed. It is sold 
in heavy, broken pieces, of a brilliant maroon or purplish- 
red colour, and crystalline or striated in structure. It 
corresponds exactly to the old officinal preparation of ‘ 
European Pharmacopoeias. Calomel is made in large 
quantities in Hankow, in much the same way* as that 
given by 7 Mr. Pearson in the third volume of Sir J. 
Davis’s work on ‘ Tho Chinese.’ Common salt, mercury 
and alum, or salt, mercury, sulphate of iron and nitre 
are rubbed together in certain proportions, and put into 
an iron platter, which is covered over with a roomy 
earthen dish well luted down. Thi 3 is exposed to the 
heat of a strong charcoal fire for four hours, when water 
is thrown upon the upper pan, and the removal of it 
shows the calomel condensed in the form of a beautiful, 
white, glistening, feathery 7 sublimate upon the inner sur— 
_ ^ face of the upper dish. It is the delicate appearance of 
with one of | this preparation which probably' has induced the Chinese^ 
