§ 831. Mercury in the Arts.—The use of mercury in the arts is so extensive, that any one in analytical practice is almost certain occasionally to meet with cases of accidental poisoning, either from the vapour[908] or some of its combinations.
[908] A singular case is cited by Tardieu (Étude méd.-légal sur l’Empoisonnement), in which a man, supposing he had some minerals containing gold, attempted the extraction by amalgamation with mercury. He used a portable furnace (for the purpose of volatilising the mercury) in a small room, and his wife, who assisted him, suffered from a very well-marked stomatitis and mercurial eruption.
Quicksilver is used in the extraction of gold, the silvering of mirrors, the construction of barometers, and various scientific instruments and appliances; also for the preservation of insects, and occasionally for their destruction.[909] An alloy with zinc and cadmium is employed by dentists for stopping teeth; but there is no evidence that it has been at all injurious, the mercury, probably, being in too powerful a state of combination to be attacked by the fluids in the mouth.[910] Cinnabar has also been employed to give a red colour to confections, and it may be found in tapers, cigarette papers, and other coloured articles. The nitrate of mercury in solution finds application in the colouring of horn, in the etching of metals, in the colouring of the finer sorts of wool, and in the hat manufacture.
[909] Forty-three persons were salivated from fumigating rooms with mercury for the purpose of destroying bugs (Sonnenschein’s Handbuch, p. 96).
[910] More danger is to be apprehended from the vulcanised rubber for artificial teeth; and, according to Dr. Taylor, accidents have occurred from the use of such supports or plates.