Fig. 1.—Native Amalgam. 
48 
This name is applied to the combinations of silver and 
mercury which occur in nature. The primary form is the 
rhombic dodecahedron, and crystals occur similar to those 
of the garnet (Plate II. Fig. 8 and 9), also truncations of 
the edges and cubic angles, as in Plate XY. Fig. 1, and 
the crystals are sometimes of the same size as the figures. 
It, moreover, occurs dense, globular, lamelliform, and dis¬ 
seminated, the upper surface is also often as it were cor¬ 
roded ; the fracture is partially conchoidal, partially foliated. 
It is pure silver-white, with a high degree of metallic 
lustre, and has a greasy feel, opaque, of 3-0—3-5 hardness, 
and 13*7—- 14T specific gravity. Before the blow-pipe, or 
when heated in the retort, the mercury evaporates, and a 
grain of silver is left. According to Klaproth, it contains 
64 of mercury and 36 of silver, and is therefore a double 
hydrarguret of silver = Ag Hg 2 . It is found especially 
at Moschel, and at the Stahlberg in the Zweibrucken 
district, also at Almaden in Spain, and at Szlana in 
Hungary. 
Arquerite crystallises in octahedrons, and resembles the 
foregoing; it is silver-white, malleable, of 1*5—2*0 hard¬ 
ness, and 10‘8 specific gravity. It contains 86*5 of silver, 
and 13*5 of mercury = Ag 6 Hg, and is found with native 
silver in the silver-mines of Arqueros in Chili. The ap¬ 
pearance is that of native silver. 
Fig. 2.—Native Mercury. 
Liquid, or disseminated in small drops, silver-white, 
of metallic lustre, opaque. It is solid and ductile at a 
temperature of 39° Fahr., and may then be obtained in 
octahedral crystals. In heat it volatilizes perfectly, and 
leaves a white tarnish on a plate of copper held over it; at 
an ordinary temperature it also volatilizes by degrees. It 
is besides readily covered with a grey coating, by which it 
loses its friability, and makes marks on paper, especially 
if it contains lead, bismuth, or iron. It is readily soluble 
in nitric acid, the dilute solution is precipitated by a plate 
of metallic copper. 
Mercury exercises a remarkably solvent effect on some 
metals, as, for example, on gold and silver, as well as on 
tin, zinc, copper, and other metals; and for this reason, it 
is often used for separating the two first by the process of 
amalgamation, for which it is the more suitable that it can 
again be abstracted by distillation. It is thus also used for 
gilding other metals by heat, especially copper, bronze, and 
iron, for the backs of mirrors, for barometers and thermo¬ 
meters, and for collecting such gases as are soluble in 
water in the mercurial trough; also for different chemical 
apparatus, and in medicine. All the compounds of 
mercury are poisonous, some of them, the chloride, -for 
instance, in a very high degree. Mercury is found always 
along with cinnabar, as in Fig. 2, which is from Morsfield 
in Rhenish Bavaria; it also occurs at Idria in Carniola, 
Horzewitz in Bohemia, Almaden in Spain, in Peru, China, 
etc. In general in small quantity; nevertheless, at one 
time, in blasting a rock containing cinnabar at Moschel, a 
mass of 13 lbs. was collected. The native mercury is in 
general very pure, or it contains only traces of silver, bis¬ 
muth, and iron; that which occurs in commerce generally 
contains some lead. 
Fig. 2—5.—Cinnabar, Scjlphuret of Mercury, 
Mercury-blende. 
The primary form is a rhombohedron of 71° 48', which, 
however, for the most part, occurs in combination with two 
other obtuse rhomb ohedrons and truncation of the vertical 
angles, as in Fig. 4, or in secondary rhombohedral tables, 
as in Fig. 5, crystalline-granular or foliated masses, like Fig. 
3, or quite dense varieties, mixed with oxide of iron, and 
sometimes containing carbon or bitumen; the so-called steel, 
liver, and coral ores are, however, more frequent. It is 
also found fibrous, arborescently disseminated, earthy, and 
of a deep red colour, as in Fig. 2. In the crystallised 
varieties the colour is cherry-coloured, passing into crimson; 
in the spathic and earthy varieties, dark or cochineal red ; 
the streak is scarlet. The crystals are semi-transparent, of 
adamantine lustre. Liver-ore and steel-ore appear fre¬ 
quently, of a brown red, passing into iron-grey, and the 
streak gives a dirty red mark. Pure cinnabar has an 
uneven fracture, is only slightly friable, of 2*5 hardness, 
and 8*0—8*1 specific gravity. On the matrass the sulphur 
burns, and the mercury volatilizes, when heated in the 
retort a dark cherry-red sublimate is formed of crystalline 
cinnabar ; mixed with burnt lime or steel filings, globules 
of quicksilver are obtained by heating in a test tube. The 
powder is soluble by agitation with nitro-hydrochloric acid. 
The composition is simple sulphuret of mercury, Ag S, con¬ 
sisting of 86*29 of mercury and 13*71 of sulphur. The 
principal localities in Europe are, Obermoschel, Potzberg, 
Landsberg, and Stahlberg in the district of Zweibrucken. 
Idria in Carniola, Horzewitz in Bohemia, Szlana in Hun¬ 
gary, and Almaden in Spain; California, Peru, Mexico, 
Brazil, China and Japan also furnish considerable quan¬ 
tities. 
Cinnabar sometimes occurs in commerce by itself, 
finely ground, and is used as an artist’s colour (vermilion) ; 
it is principally employed, however, for obtaining mercury. 
Idria and Almaden yield most of the mercury for Europe. 
Chloride of mercury , horn quicksilver , crystallises in 
small quadratic prisms. White, passing into grey and 
yellow, of adamantine lustre, translucent, of 1*5 hardness, 
and 6*5 specific gravity. It is a sub-chloride of mercury, 
Hg 2 Cl, or a proto-chloride Hg Cl, composed of 84*9 of 
mercury and 15*1 of chlorine. It volatilizes perfectly in 
the retort; and on the matrass with oxide of copper and 
salt of phosphorus gives a blue flame. 
Iodide of mercury , of a deep-red colour, is said to occur 
in Mexico ; seleniuret of mercury , of the lead grey colour, 
and appearance of grey copper, consisting of 25*5 selurium 
and 74*5 mercury (Hg 6 Se 5 ) has been found at Zorge in the 
Hartz, and was formerly taken for native selenium. Mer¬ 
cury- lead-selenhiret, of similar appearance, and, like the last 
mentioned, giving off vapours of selenium and mercury, 
but at the same time leaving a yellow tarnish as residue, 
is found with seleniuret of lead at Tilkerode in the Hartz 
mountains. 
Copper. 
The only red metal occurring in nature, and which, by 
its malleability and toughness, as well as by its durability 
in air and water, has recommended itself, from the earliest 
times, for all kinds of purposes in the arts. It occurs 
