Herman Boerhaave

That Property of Quicksilver, by which it is turned into this Powder by Fire, is hardly taken from it by Distillation.

The Operation.

The very fluid and very pure Mercury (out of which I had made by 501 Distillations, 2 Ounces, 1 Drachm, and 51 Grains of Powder, by the 2?, 4??, and 5?? Operations) which remained to the Quantity of 10 Ounces, 5 Drachms, and one half, I distilled out of a pure Glass Retort, till the Mercury was all passed thro’ into the Receiver. The Bottom of the Retort was as clean as if it had been just taken out of the Furnace at the Glass-House: But at the Edge of the Surface, where it had stood before the Distillation in the Belly of the Retort, there was a shining Ring, of a beautiful red, fine and fair to the Eye. The Mercury that came out, being purified and dried, I poured again into the same Retort, and forced it into the Receiver. This was repeated ten times: Every time more of the red Powder was made, and in no less Quantity then from the crude Mercury.

The Effect.

The Mercury very vivid and very bright; the fix’d Powder of a beautiful red, but (as in 2?, 4??, 5?? Operations) to the Quantity of seven Grains.

Corollaries.

1. The Mutability of Mercury into this Powder by Fire, still remains in the Mercury, after an eighth part of it has been changed into the Powder.

2. After 511 Distillations, each of which had produced some of that Powder, this Mutability remains, altho’ no new Mercury has been added.

3. Therefore that Powder is scarce to be accounted the Dregs or Feces separable by Distillation from the intimate Substance of the Mercury.

4. And hence it is certain the Mercury is so changed by this Means; but it is not certain that it is by this Means defecated.

5. Fire is not united to Mercury, as some celebrated modern Chemists have said it was, in their Writings.

6. Diligence can scarce teach the constant Artists those Bounds beyond which that Powder is no longer produced.

7. If that Powder is produced by Fire out of the crude Sulphur of Mercury, this Distillation does not purge the Mercury from it.