Mercury.

SECTION XVII.

Of the Agitation of pure mercury in water.

GITATION in pure water will con-

il vert the purest quicksilver into blackpowder, and much more speedily than itcan be effected in air; but when this isproduced in water, this state of the quick-silver is not permanent. But it will givemy reader more satisfaction, if I describethe phenomena of this process just as theyoccurred to me.

I agitated a pound of pure quicksilver afew minutes in distilled water, when I ob-served that the water had become opake,with particles of a black matter, so as to beimpervious to the light. This process Irepeated several hours, changing the wateras it became black.

When any quantity of water had beenonce used for this purpose, the same effectwas produced much sooner than it waswith fresli water ; so that, though the

i

fresli