The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-12-23 00:00:00

better take her home, and give her some good advice.' (Com-
plainant stared.) (To the prisoner.) Don't you trouble him;
do you hear, go and enroll yourself in the society to which he
belongs." The prisoner bobbed a curtsy, and walked out of
the dock, whilst the complainant, with becoming deliberation,
and a look betokening no little surprise, that a man of his
consequence should be so unceremoniously treated, walked out
of-court.

A POPULAR COURSE OF CHEMISTRY, AT THE
MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

LECTURE It.
On Wednesday evening Mr. Hemming proceeded.
The next metal for our consideration is the valuable and use-
ful metal mercury. Mercury, like the previous Metals, appears
to have been known at a very early period of time, aud, like
old and silver, it is found frequently in a native state of purity.
Like those two metals, it has been found in all parts of the
world. Great . quantities exist in China, in Hungary, Spain,
and South America. We have very valuable mines at Idria,
which' twilit veryletely produced 100 tons per annum. The
mines of Almaden, in Spain, have been much more productive.
These mines have been worked for a long time; for Pliny tells
us that all the Vermillion used in Rome was procured from
Spain. Soon after the period when gold was discovered in
South America, there were 1,200 tons of liquid mercury remain-
ing in the magazines of Almaden after they had exported a
large quantity for the purposes of reducing the gold and silver
ores. We have no mercury in England; but it is said that
small quantities of it have been found in Cornwall and Scot-
land. It is most abundant in nature as Cinnabar me. In
South America native mercury is found very abundantly. In
some cases it found in the fissures of rocks, and in others it
percolates tArough the rocks, aud is procured by placing. vessels
underneath to receive it. When we meet with the ore in com-
bination with sulphur, the following process of- reduction is
resorted to .---The ore is first reduced to powder' and then mixed
With one quarter its weight of slacked lime. This mixture is
heated in a retort : those of Almaden are made to contain 80
potinds, the beaks of which are immersed in refrigerators for
the purpose of condensing the mercury as it comes over in the
vaporous state. The rationale of the process is very simple.
The sulphur at a high heat leaves the mercury and combines
with the lime. In some cases iron is used; but lime is much
cheaper, and is generally preferred. But in each the same
rationale obtains. The mercury, being left in its native state,
is distilled over and condensed by abstraction of heat. Mer-
cury thus obtained is a remarkable metal differing from others.
It is a perfect fluid of within 700 e; it boils at 660', and freezes
at 40° below the zero of Fahrenheit's scale.- Mercury is some-
times frozen by the natural temperature of the atmosphere.
This occurs in high northern and sonthern latitudes. It has fre-
quently been frozen in Hudson's Bay,When it has been beaten on
an anvil until it has been as thin as a sheet of paper. It is not
,a ductile metal; it has so little tenacity that it cannot be drawn,
into wire. When snow is on the ground, it is by no means
difficult to freeze mercury. It is first reduced to zero by mix-
ing.snow and salt together, and immersing the mercury in the
mixture; We then have to reduce it 40° lower, and this-we do
by means of other freezing mixtures. The materials of which
the freezing mixture is made must likewise be similarly re-
' duced to zero before mixture. In this way large quantities
have been frozen. Messrs. Allen and Pepys, of London, dur-
ing a severe winter, froze no less than 5G pounds of mercury.
sir bile in this state, a person was desirous of touching the me-
tallic mercury; but he was quickly compelled to withdraw his
hand, as it communicated a feeling similar to that of iron at a
white heat. Sir J. Ross states, that if he touched mercury, or any
other metal at the same temperature, it communicated a sensa-
tion similar to burning, and the skin stuck to the metal. It would,
therefore, seem that the sudden deprivation of large quantities
of caloric from the hand produces the same feeling as the ae•es-
sion. of caloric in large quantities. While it has been frozen in
Hudson's Bay, a piece of it was thrown into hot water, but
that instant it deprived the hot water of so much heat to liquify
it, that the water became frozen, and the glass was broken by
the expansion of the water. When mercury is exposed to the'
atmosphere its colour becomes tarnished, probably by combin-
ing with the sulphuretted hydrogen. It is a heavy metal, being
13 a times heavier than water. A pint of mercury will weigh
nearly as much as a gallon of water. Frozen mercury is
heavier than liquid mercury, in this it differs from frozen water,
which being lighter than iquid water very fortunately floats
upon it. Mercury evapotates spontaneously at all ordinary
temperatures above 32°. This has been proved by a very deli-
cate experiment; Dr. Faraday covered the inner outface of a
stopper with a leaf of gold, and placed it in the neck of a
mercury bottle, and he found it coated with mercury, at all
temperatures above 32, but not at that temperature or under.
Mercury evaporates at high temperatures with very great ra-
pidity, in consequence of which the mercury mines are very
destructive to the health of the miners. In South America
there is a large mercury mine, called Guanea Velica, one'of the
largest mines jn the world, being 480 fathoms deep, and 170 in
circumference. In this mine there are streets and squares, aittl
even a church, where divine service is performed on Sunday's;
and saint days. The miners are all slaves, and to prevent them
escaping, they are badly clothed. The temperature of the
mines is high, and the vapour of mercury entering the lungs
of the miners, salivates them, and shortens their life. The
employment of water gilding, as it was formerly conducted, was
considered very unwholesome, and few workmen could be found
to work in it. It is usual to immerse the article to be gilt in a
solution of nitrate of mercury; this will cover the metal with a
coating of mercury. The article is then slightly brushed over
with an amalgam of gold and mercury, and subjected almost to
a red heat, and then we have a superficial coating of gold upon
the metal. Formerly this operation was carried on at an open
fire, and the vapour came into the apartment. The mode now
adopted is to heat the article in a stove provided with a mica or
talc window, so that the workmen can watch the process.. The
-old mode was found exceedingly injurious to the workmen; so
much so that many marvellous stories are told of its effects.
Boyle found metallic mercury in the head of one of these
workmen six months after ha had worked as a water gilder. In
the. Philcisophical Transactions of 1665, it was stated that'the
body of a workman was so impregnated with the metal, -at a
long period after be had left the business, that if he touched a
piece of copper it would be amalgamated, and if the copper
.was put into his mouth it would be coated with mercury. This
effect. is experieaced by those who take large quantities of mer-
curial medicine, as the vapour will pass through the body in
large quantities, and coat all the gold it touches with mercury.
Although not subject to oxidation by exposure to the atmos-
. pkiese,it absorbs. moisture...from_ the_atmosphere ;. on, this ac
count, therefore, in the manufacture of delicate philosophical-
instruments,.it becomes necessary, even if we may not require
a vacuum above the thermonieter, to boil the mercury to ex-
pel the vapour. A few years ago mercury was sold at a
moderate mice. about 2s. 6d. per pound wholesale. It is now
4s. per pound. ne re, Ur LIM iliac all Lb.
brought to England is purchased by one house in Lon-
don, who, by this monopoly, are enabled . to charge what
they like for it. It is, however, difficult to obtain pure mer-
cury, as it is alloyed with lead and bismuth. It is a singular
property of mercury, that if we amalgamate it with bismuth we
may add one quarter its weight of lead to it without rendering
it less fluid, and if we squeeze it thus alloyed in a piece of cha-
moy leather, the lead and bismuth will pass through the leather
as well as the mercury. -If we attempt to distil the mixture,.
part of the baser metals will evaporate in the same manner with
the mercury. In order then to purify the mercury we had bet-
. ter heat it with sulphur, and then refine it by the same process
described for reducing the ore. We may test whether there be
any bismuth present by dissolving the mercury in nitric acid,
when, if a little of the nitrate be dropped into water a white
precipitate will indicate the presence of bismuth. This preci-
pitate is called the oxide of bismuth, and is sold in enormous
quantities under the denomination of pearl powder. Lemery,.
who introduced this cosmetic into Paris, made a rapid fortune
by its sale.: There is one little inconvenience attending its use,
and that.is, that if a lady who uses it approaches too close to any
mineral watere as those of Harrogate, which contain sulphu-
retted-hydregiip, the pearl powder will immediately become
, black. &little weak acid will, however, remove it.
We haVetwseoxides of mercury, two sulphurets of mercury,
and two chlorides of mercury. the combinations of mercury
are all very important. The first oxide we will consider is the
peroxide of mercury, a compound of 200 parts of mercury, and
16 parts, by weight, of oxygen. This is made by expos-
ing mercury in shallow vessels with a broad bottom to the heat
of a sand-batb, and at the end of several weeks we find a
simple film of oxide of mercury. We must have a very long,
narrow tube to place in this vessel to prevent the evaporation
of the mercury. This substance is, however, very interesting
to the chemist as being the material from which Dr. Priestley
first obtained oxygen gas. He filled a flask full of liquid mer-
cury and a little of this peroxide, when by heating it with the,
sun's rays through a lens, the oxygen gas was separated from
the metal by_the heat, whilst the metal united with the liquid
mercury. He instantly examined the air he had then obtained,
and introduced a taper into it, and. found that the taper burnt
very much better than in the atmosphere. He next immersed
a mouse in some, and found that it lived, a much longer time
than. it would in the same quantity of' atmospheric air. This disco-
very of its property of supporting life induced Priestley to make
use of that singular expression' which proved the priority of his
claim to the discovery of the gas which was disputed by Lavoi-
Hier; Priestley had said that he had found an air which if he
could breathe alone earth would be a heaven to him, and that
only two living beings besides himself had inspired it, which
were two mice. There are various methods of obtaining this
perqxide; we dissolve mercury in nitre acid, and evaporate to
drydess, and applying heat for a long. time, but not a red heat,
until all the water of crystallization Is driven off, and we have
nothing but a peroxide left. Another is to precipitate the solu-
tion of mercury in nitric acid by means of an alkali, and by
heating it to drive, off its water, this will give us peroxide of
mercury.in the shape of a red powder which is very. useful in the
preparation of oxygen gas. In the state of commerce a quail-
iity of red leadjs mixed with it. This we can easily detect by
heating a portion of it. when the mercury will be dissipated,
and the lead, if any, left behind as a yellow oxide. The most
whimsical method of making the protoxide of mercury, which,
like the peroxide, can be made by a variety of processes, was
adopted by a chemist on the continent. lie placed a quantity
of mercury in a bottle, and tied it to the sail of a windmill, by
which means every portion of the mercury being brought ra-
pidly into connexion with the atmosphere, he had a small quan-
tity of black or, protoxide of mercury formed. We may make
it by triturating mercury with any substance which wilt divide.
it, and cause it to present a number of surfaces to the atmos-
phere. The black oxide is the base of the famous blue pill, and
of various other useful medicinal compounds. The blue pill is
made by triturating fluid mercury with conserveof roses and li-
quorice powder. We make these oxides by anothet mode • by
treating bichloride of mercury with caustic potash we obtain
peroxide of mercury, whereas if we take the prutochloride of
mercury we make the protoxide. 'These are not, however, to be
recommended, hilt are merely interesting methods of producing
the oxides. The red, or peroxide of mercury is, used in
medicine, but it is of a poisonous nature. Mercury was in-
troduced as a medicine by Paracelsus, and it is asserted that he
performed many miraculous cures by its means. This Para-
celsus was a most impudent. boaster. In one of his essays, he
says that " he has more experience in his beard than was con:.
tamed in all the universities in the world." As he was upon
this subject, Mr. Hemming alluded to another eccentric iudi-
vidual, Basil Valentine, who discovered, by chance, the re-
markable power of the metallic antimony. He was-operating
upon some antimony, in pursuit of the philosopher's stone, and
threw some into the hogs' trough. The swine thrived upon the
food. Seeing that it was beneficial to them, and produced
medicinal effect, Valentine thought that it would prove equally
beneficial to the nieuks of his monastery. He administered tf
to them, but it killed the greater part of them. On this sti•-;1
count the metal was called anti moire, antimony, a name which
it bears to this d,ay.. Basil commences his discourses in some-
what similar language to that of Paracelsus, by telling the
world that all shall follow him, &c. Now, with respect to the
chlorides of mercury, one of them is of very great importance in
medicine, forming calomel. It is called by physicians; submu•
riate of mercury, but it is a chloride. The per-chloride and it'
are made in the first instance from sulphuret of mercury and
common salt. We may make calomel by Scheele's process,
hut it does not seem to be so much approved of as the common
process by mixing nitrate of mercury with common' .salt. It is,
usually made by boiling, first of all, two pounds of mercury and
thirty ounces of concentrated sulphuric acid. The rationale
is simple. The sulphuric acid combines with the soda of the
common salt and converts it into sulphate of soda, and the
chlorine unites with the mercury. In order to make the car,
rosive sublimate, the common salt, mercury, and sulphuric
acid are mingled in different propOrtious. In manufacturing