Men and animals employed about the Smelting Works are salivated and otherwise injuriously affected by the mercury; but I believe no like effects are experienced in the mines. The ore is found irregularly distributed in the hills a little more than a mile from the smelting works. The vein is very irregular; in fact, it is less a vein than a series of chambers. The mine is entered through a level, which extends twelve hundred feet into the hill. Side galleries are excavated on the line of deposits, and sometimes they follow these deposits four or five hundred feet. The earthquake of 1865 opened up several new chambers in the rock, and gave an increased value to the property—about the only property which an earthquake was ever known to benefit. Most of the laborers in these mines are of Indian or Spanish origin. They have a chapel in the mine, similar to chapels which are fitted up in the mines of Catholic countries all over the world. The chambers of the mine are occasionally used for fêtes and celebrations, and at such times are quite interesting.
EXTENT OF THE PRODUCTION.
The quantity of quicksilver produced annually at the New Almaden mine is about two million pounds. Sometimes it falls short of this amount, and sometimes exceeds it; but the production is largely in the control of the managers, and they can raise or lower it almost at will. The stock of this company has been the subject of a great deal of speculation in Wall Street. Some men have made money by it, and others have lost. The speculations in it have been so extensive that it has become a sort of financial football, which prudent people would do well to let alone.
The New Idria mine was opened subsequently to the opening of the New Almaden mine. The mercury of New Almaden had driven that of Spain from all the American markets, and fairly controlled the world. The mine at Idria, together with mines at other places in California, produced a comparatively small amount, so that the market of the New Almaden mine was not seriously affected.
A universal system is followed over the entire globe, so far as the packages in which mercury is placed are concerned. The Almaden mines of Spain adopted the plan of enclosing the mercury in iron flasks, containing seventy-six and one half pounds, and the example is followed elsewhere. Sometimes half flasks and quarter flasks are made; but the standard of seventy-six and a half pounds for a whole flask is universally maintained.
HOW MERCURY IS USED.
The greatest consumers of mercury are the Chinese, not physically, or for mechanical or chemical purposes. The Chinese use a great many paints, and especially red ones. As a natural consequence, quicksilver enters largely into their composition. Other uses of quicksilver are in the extraction of silver and gold from their ores in the amalgamating process, and also for coating or silvering the backs of mirrors. Mercury is employed in the construction of philosophical instruments, and is preferred to other fluids for filling thermometers and barometers. It is used in medicine to a considerable extent; and doubtless many of my readers are familiar with it. Its most general form is in what is known as the blue pill. Nearly all physicians prescribe it, but they always enjoin great caution in its use. One celebrated medical writer says, “Few medicines produce such a marked sense of depression, both mentally and bodily, as mercury, even of ordinary doses; and when the system is brought thoroughly under its influences, the effects become distressing.”