![]() ![]() Petersburg, Russia obtained solid mercury by freezing a mercury thermometer in a mixture of snow and concentrated nitric acid. In 1759 Adam Braun and Mikhail Lomonosov working in St. (Despite the fact that mercury is now known to be highly toxic, some traditional Chinese medicines still appear to contain high levels of mercury. (5),(6) They were wrong, of course!Ĭhinese emperors used mercury to prolong their lives (3) – although in all probability it had the opposite effect. They also believed it offered the path by which base metals could become gold and represented the quintessential property of fluidity. (3))Īlchemists believed mercury was the most important of all substances because it encompassed solid and liquid, earth and heaven, and life and death. (The planet had been named after the fast moving Roman messenger of the gods, Mercury. Alchemists observed the element’s rapid, liquid flow, and likened it to the fastest moving planet, Mercury. Our modern name for the element was provided by alchemists. The Romans modified the Greek name slightly, referring to mercury as Hydragyrum, from which we get mercury’s modern chemical symbol Hg. we find Aristotle refers to mercury in writing as ‘hydro-argyros’ – which translates as liquid-silver or water-silver. Mercury was known to the ancient Chinese, Egyptians and Hindus and has been found in Egyptian tombs dating back to about 1500 B.C. Mercury or quicksilver has been known since ancient times. HgO (mercuric oxide), Hg 2O (mercurous oxide) Mild, ⇒ Hg(NO 3) 2 (mercuric nitrate), NO x
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