Another very interesting experiment was the freezing of a slender triangular bar of mercury which might be twisted, bent, and tied in a knot. This was done by folding a long strip of very stiff paper so as to make an angular trough into which the mercury was poured. This trough was then carefully leveled and a mixture of solid carbonic acid and ether was placed over the metal in the usual way. In a few seconds the mercury was frozen quite solid so that it could be lifted out by means of two pairs of wooden forceps and bent and knotted at will. But the most striking part of the experiment was the melting of this bar of mercury by means of a piece of ice. The moment the ice touched the mercury, the latter melted and fell down in drops in the same way that a bar of lead or solder melts when it is touched with a red-hot iron.
The melted mercury was allowed to fall into a tall ale-glass of water, the temperature of which had been reduced as nearly as possible to the freezing point. When the mercury came in contact with the cold water, the latter began to freeze and by careful manipulation it was possible to freeze a tube of ice through the center of the column of water. The effect of this under proper illumination was very striking.
Owing to the fact that the specific heat or thermal capacity of mercury is only about one-thirtieth of that of water, it requires a considerable amount of melted mercury to produce the desired result.
But these processes do not enable us to fix mercury in the alchemical sense; the accomplishment of that still remains an unsolved problem, and it is more than likely that it will remain so.
VII
THE UNIVERSAL MEDICINE AND THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
ove of life is a characteristic of all animals, man included, and notwithstanding the fact that an occasional individual becomes so dissatisfied with his environment that he commits suicide, and also in the face of the poet's assertion that
"protracted life is but protracted woe"