Volume 1

M0012706: Title page from A Treatise on Mercury..., 1733

Date:
September1952
Reference:
WT/D/1/20/1/113/57
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: M0012706: Title page from <i>A Treatise on Mercury...</i>, 1733. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/60 (page 23)
    ^Tremblings of the Nerves. All fuch Miners are of a livid Colour, and foon fall into a Palfy, or Convulfions, and laftly, are fuffocated by an Afthrna: And even the ftrongeft Men cannot live* in this Work, above four Years, but die moft miferably. In Italy the Mercury, Miners work but fix Hours in a Day, and yet they foon grow paralytick, and die of a he£tic Fever. In Hungary, fome Mines cannot be work’d at all, on Ac¬ count of the Mercurial Steams, which fuffocate moft that come near them. A certain Labourer, who had work’d in the Mines only fix Months, was fc full of Mercury, that when he took a Piece of Gold into his Mouth, or rub'd it with his Fingers, it became white, like Silver j and he was fo infirm, that with both his Hands he could not bring a Glafs of Beer to his Mouth without lpiiling. Gil¬ ders* Looking Glafs-makers, Chymifts^ Painters, and thofe who in Teru feparate the Gold and Silver from mineral Drofs, by means of Mercury, are expos’d to the like Ioconveniencies. I