a8o 
CHEMISTRY. 
Of MERCURY, or. QUICKSILVER. 
Mercury, fo named by the alchemifts, is not found 
abundantly in nature. Jt is met with in the earth, either 
in the virgin date, poffefling all its ufual properties, or 
in the ftate of an oxyd,or combined with acids, fulphur, 
or other metallic matters in the mineralized ftate. Run¬ 
ning mercury is found in globules, or larger unifies, in 
friable earths and ftones, and moft commonly exifts in 
the clefts or cavities of its ores. At Idria, in Spain, 
and in America, it is collected in the cavities and clefts 
of rocks. It is likewife found fometimes in clay at Al- 
maden, and in beds of chalk in Sicily. It is found like- 
wife in filver and lead ores, and mixed with the white 
oxyd of arfenic. 
Sage mentions an ore of mercury, in the ftate of an 
oxyd, at Idria, in Friuli; it is of a brown red, very foft, 
and granulated in its fra&ure ; fome globules of running 
mercury exift in it, and it is reducible by mere heat,, 
without addition. Kirwan confiders it as the combina¬ 
tion of mercurial oxyd and carbonic acid ; one hundred 
parts of the ore afford ninety-one parts of mercury. In 
1776, Mr. Woulfe found, at Obermufchel in the duchy 
ofDeuxponts, a cryftallized, ponderous, fpatliofe, white, 
yellow, or greenifb, ore of mercury, in which, by means 
of alkalis, he difcovered the prefence of the l'ulphuric 
and muriatic acids. It is a compound of fulphat of mer¬ 
cury, and corroiive mercurial muriat. Sage affirms, that 
it contains eighty-fix paits of mercury in the hundred. 
This chemift has defcribed a corneous brown ore of mer¬ 
cury, from Carinthia. Mercury is moft commonly found 
naturally combined with fulphur; it is then known by 
the name of cinnabar. This mineral fubftance is red, 
and has not a metallic appearance, though the quantity 
of fulphur is but Email in companion to the mercury; a 
proof that the combination of thefe two bodies is very 
intimate. Cinnabar is found in the duchy of Deuxponts, 
in the Palatinate, in Hungary, in Friuli, and Almaden 
in Spain, and in South America, efpeciaily at Guamanga 
in Peru. It is fometimes compadt, and its colour varies 
from a pale red, to a deep and blackilh red. Sometimes 
it is found in tranfparent ruby-coloured cryftals, and 
often in a kind of fcales, or flattened laminae. It is call¬ 
ed native vermillion, and cinnabar in flowers, when it is 
in the form of a very brilliant red powder. It is all'o 
found difperfed with different earths in fulphat of lime, 
mixed with iron, with pyrites, and with filver. Mr. 
Cronftedt in his Mineralogy, fpeaks of an ore of mer¬ 
cury, in which that fubftance is united to lulphur and 
copper; it is of a blackilh grey, brittle and ponderous 5 
its fradture is vitreous, and it decrepitates in the fire. It 
is found at Mufchel Lanfberg. The fame mineralogift 
affirms, that mercury amalgamated with virgin filver, 
has been found in the mine of Sr.hlberg in Sweden. Mcn- 
net, in his Syftem of Mineralogy, fpeaks of an ore brought 
from Dauphiny, by Mr. Montigny, in 1768, which con¬ 
tained mercury, fulphur, arfenic, cobalt, iron, and filver. 
It is grey, whitilh, and friable. He found it to contain 
one pound of mercury and three or four ounces of filver 
per quintal. The mine which fumiffies it in greateft 
quantity is that of Almaden in Spain. 
It was long taken for granted, that mercury could 
not be deprived of its fluidity ; but .lie academicians of 
Peterlburg have proved the contrary. Thefe learned men 
availed themfelves of the exceffive cold in the year 1759, 
to try many important experiments. They increafed the 
natural cold by the afiiftance of a mixture of fnow and 
fuming fpirit of nitre, and by that means l'ucceeded in 
caufing a mercurial thermometer to fall to ^13 degrees, 
according to the graduation of De Lille ; which anfwers 
to forty-fix degrees below freezing of the gradation of 
Reaumur. Thefe philofophers, obferving that at this 
degree the mercury defcended no longer, broke the ball 
of glals, and found the metallic fluid frozen in the form 
of a folid, which, on trial, proved capable of extenfioil 
1 
under the hammer. This experiment demonftrated that 
mercury, like all other metallic fubftances, is capable of 
affuming the folid form, and that it is then in a certain 
degree dudtile. They could not determine the degree 
of duftility it is ful’ceptible of, becaufe every ftroke of 
the hammer communicating heat to fome part of the, 
metal, melted it, and caufed it to flow in that point. 
Pallas, who fucceeded in congealing mercury in the 
year 1772, at Krafnejark, by the natural cold of 55 de¬ 
grees and a half, obferved that it then reiembled loft 
tin, and was capable of being beat out into plates, that 
it broke eafily, and that the pieces being brought toge¬ 
ther united again. In 1775, Mr. Hutchins obferved the 
fame phenomenon at Albany fort, and Mr. Bieker at 
Rotterdam in 1776, at the fifty-fixth degree below zero. 
This congelation was all'o effected in 17S3, in England, 
at a more moderate degree of cold; and it was determined 
that 32 degrees below o, or zero, of the thermometer of 
Reaumur, is theterm at whichthis congelation takes place. 
If therefore the mercury defcended lower in the early 
experiments, the phenomenon mull be attributed to the 
condenfation of the lolid metal. Hence we fee that this 
metal is the moft fufible of any we know. The greateft 
cold known in the countries from whence it is obtained, 
cannot render it folid. It is probable that if in the pre¬ 
ceding experiments the cold by which the mercury was 
frozen had been produced by infenfible degrees, that 
metallic fubftance would have taken a regular cryftal¬ 
lized form. 
The prefence of mercury may be afcertained by fub- 
liming a piece of ore, and bringing a damp glals in con¬ 
tain with the fumes ; a white powder will be collefted, 
with which rub a piece of gold; if it whitens it, there is 
no doubt but it contains mercury. An ore of mercury 
is known by pounding and mixing it with lime or alkalis; 
this being thrown on a hot brick, and the whole covered 
with a glals or jar, the mercury is reduced into vapours, 
and condenfes on the fides of the veffel. If the objedt 
be to difcover the quantity of mercury it contains, the 
ore, after being pulverized and waflied, muft be diftillecl 
with fuch additional matters as are capable of feizing 
the fulphur, and difengaging the mercury. If the ore 
be carefully weighed before the allay and likewife the 
mercury obtained by diftiilation, the proportional quan¬ 
tity, which may be expedited from any other mafs of the 
ore," will be known. 
There are feveral proceffes for extracting the mercury 
from the ores in which it is contained. The ufual way 
is by raking among the ore, and drawing off the water. 
Some employ what are called draining galleries. Some¬ 
times the ore is mixed with lime, and diftilled in iron re¬ 
torts : thefe retorts are immoveably fixed in the furnace; 
the matter is put in at the neck, and the mercury is re¬ 
ceived in veffels filled with water. The mercury obtain¬ 
ed by diftiilation is always pure, becaufe it is not then 
mixed with volatile bodies. Mercury differs from other 
metallic fubftances by its fluidity, wdiich has caufed it to 
be efteemed a peculiar metallic water, called aqua min 
madefaciens manus , “ water which does not wet the 
hands.” 
The mercury met with in commerce is feldom pure, as 
it isalmoft always mixed with pewter, or foreign metallic 
matters, whence it appears tarnifhed, and inftead of di¬ 
viding itfelf into neat globules, it flattens, and feems to 
be covered with points : the merchants then lay it draws 
a tail. When pure, and efpeciaily when obtained from 
cinnabar, which is called mercury revivifiedfrom cinnabar , 
it poffeffes an extreme degree of divifibiiity; and its glo¬ 
bules always run into a convex form. 
Mercury has no tafte that the nerves of the tongue and 
palate can diftinguiih, but it produces a very evident effedl 
on the ftomachand inteftines, as well as on the furfaceofthe 
Ikin. Infedts and worms are infinitely more lenfible of 
this tafte than other animals, and for that reafon it very 
foon kills them ; and phyficians adminifter it as an excel¬ 
lent 
