Chapter XLVII: Section II: Of Operations on METALS (5)

Corrosive Sublimate may also be made only by mixing Mercury with Sea-salt, without any additament. This may appear surprizing when we consider that, as Acids have a greater affinity with Alkalis than with metallic substances, the Acid of Sea-salt ought not to quit its basis, which is Alkaline, to unite with Mercury.

In order to explain this phenomenon it must be remembered that Sea-salt, when exposed to the fire without additament, suffers a little of its Acid to escape. Now this portion of the Marine Acid unites with the Mercury, and forms a Corrosive Sublimate. Moreover, as there is a pretty strong affinity between the Marine Acid and Mercury, this may help to detach from the Sea-salt a greater quantity of Acid than it would otherwise part with. Nevertheless, the quantity of Sublimate obtained by this means is not considerable, nor is it very corrosive.

On this occasion we must also mention another combination of the Marine Acid with Mercury; which is made by mixing that metallic substance perfectly with Sal Ammoniac, by the means of triture. Mercury, like all other metals except Gold, possesses the property of decompounding Sal Ammoniac, separating the volatile Alkali which serves it for a basis, and combining, by the help of a very gentle heat, with its Acid, which is well known to be the same with that of Sea-salt. This decomposition of Sal Ammoniac, by the metalline substances, is a full exception to the first column of Mr. Geoffroy's Table of Affinities, and is the basis of several new Medicines invented by the late Comte de la Garaye[10].

[10] See the Memoir given in by me on this subject to the Academy of
Sciences in the _Memoires l'Acadamie_ 1754.

Corrosive Sublimate is the most violent and the most active of all corrosive poisons. It is never used in Medicine, but in external applications. It is a powerful escharotic; it destroys proud flesh, and cleans old ulcers: but it must be used by those only who know how to apply it properly, and requires an able hand to manage it. It is not commonly applied by itself, but mixed in the proportion of half a dram to a pound of lime-water. This mixture is yellowish, and bears the name of _Aqua Phagadenica_.

Water dissolves Corrosive Sublimate, but in a small quantity. If a Fixed Alkali be mixed with this solution, the Mercury precipitates in the form of a red powder. If the precipitate be procured by a Volatile Alkali, it is white; if by Lime-water, it is yellow. This Mercurial Salt dissolves pretty easily in boiling Spirit of Wine.

PROCESS VIII.

_Sweet Sublimate._

Take four parts of Corrosive Sublimate; pulverize it in a glass or marble mortar; add by little and little three parts of Mercury revivified from Cinabar; triturate the whole carefully, till the Mercury be perfectly killed, so that no globule thereof can be perceived. The matter will then be grey. Put this powder into an apothecary's phial, or into a matrass, whose neck is not above four or five inches long, leaving two thirds thereof empty. Set the vessel in a sand-bath, and put sand round it to one third of its heighth. Apply a moderate fire at first; and afterwards raise it gradually till you perceive that the mixture sublimes. Keep it up to this degree till nothing more will rise, and then break the vessel. Reject, as useless, a small quantity of earth which you will find at the bottom; separate also what adheres to the neck of the vessel, and carefully collect the matter in the middle, which will be white. Pulverize it; sublime it a second time, in the same manner as before; and in the same manner separate the earthy matter left at the bottom of the vessel, and what you find sublimed into the neck. Pulverize, and sublime a third time, the white matter you last found in the middle. The white matter of this third sublimation is the _Sweet Sublimate_, called also _Aquila Alba_.

_OBSERVATIONS._

The Acid of Sea-salt in the Corrosive Sublimate is very far from being perfectly saturated with Mercury; and thence comes the corrosive quality of this saline compound. But though Mercury, as appears by this combination, is capable of imbibing a much greater quantity of Acid than is necessary to dissolve it; nay, though it naturally takes up this super-abundant quantity of Acid, yet it doth not follow from thence that this redundant Acid may not combine with Mercury to the point of perfect saturation, so as to lose its corrosive acidity.

This is the case in the operation here described. A fresh quantity of running Mercury is mixed with Corrosive Sublimate; and the fresh Mercury, combining with the super-abounding Acid, deprives the Sublimate of its acrimony, and forms a compound which comes much nearer the nature of a Neutral Metallic Salt.

Trituration alone is not sufficient to produce an union between the newly added Mercury and the Acid of the Corrosive Sublimate: because, generally speaking, the Acid of Sea-salt cannot dissolve Mercury without the help of a certain degree of heat, and unless it be reduced into vapours.

Thus, though the newly added Mercury becomes invisible by trituration, and seems actually combined with the Corrosive Sublimate, yet the union is not intimate. There is only an interposition of parts, but no true dissolution of the newly added Mercury by the super-abundant Acid of the Corrosive Sublimate. For this reason the mixture must be sublimed; and by this sublimation only is the true union effected. Nor is one single sublimation sufficient: no less than three are necessary to deprive the Sublimate of the corrosive quality which renders it poisonous. After the third sublimation, the Sublimate being put upon the tongue gives no considerable sensation of acrimony; nor doth it retain any more of its former activity than is requisite to make it a gentle purgative, when administered from six to thirty grains for a dose.

If a less quantity of Mercury than that above directed be mixed with the Corrosive Sublimate, the super-abundant Acid will not be sufficiently saturated; and the less Mercury is added, the more of its corrosive virtue will the Sublimate retain.

If, on the contrary, a greater quantity of Mercury be added, there will be more than the Acid can possibly dissolve, and the superfluous quantity will remain in its natural form of Quick-silver. It is better therefore to err in the excess than in the defect of the proportion of Mercury to be added; because the Corrosive Sublimate will take up no more than is necessary to dulcify it.

Part of the Acid of the Corrosive Sublimate is also dissipated in vapours during the operation; and it is necessary to allow room for these vapours to circulate, and a vent to give them passage, or else they will burst the vessels. These are our reasons for leaving an empty space in the subliming vessels, and for having their necks no more than five or six inches long.

The matter which sublimes into the neck of the vessel is always very acrid; for which reason it must be separated from the Sweet Sublimate. There remains also at the bottom of the matrass an earthy, reddish matter; which probably comes from the Vitriol employed in making the Corrosive Sublimate. This matter must likewise be rejected as useless after every sublimation.

PROCESS IX.

_The Panacea of Mercury._

Pulverize some Sweet Sublimate, and sublime it in the same manner as you did thrice before. Repeat this nine times. After these sublimations it will make no impression on the tongue. Then pour on it aromatic Spirit of Wine, and set the whole in digestion for eight days. After that decant the Spirit of Wine, and dry what remains, which is the _Panacea of Mercury_.

_OBSERVATIONS._

The great number of sublimations, which the Sweet Sublimate is made to undergo, sweeten it still more, and to such a degree that it leaves no sensation on the tongue, nor hath any purgative virtue.

The Spirit of Wine in which it is digested after all the sublimations, is designed to blunt still more the sharpness of any acid particles that may not have been sufficiently dulcified by the preceding sublimations.

As Mercury is the specific remedy for venereal disorders, sundry preparations thereof have been attempted with a view to produce different effects. Sweet Sublimate is purgative; and for that reason is not quite proper for procuring a salivation, because it carries off the humours by stool. The Panacea of Mercury, which, on the contrary, is not purgative, may raise a salivation when taken inwardly.