Defn: Of, pertaining to, or derived from, mercury; containing mercury; — said of those compounds of mercury in which it is present in its highest proportion. Mercurous chloride. (Chem.) See Calomel.
MERCURY
Mer"cu*ry, n. Etym: [L. Mercurius; akin to merx wares.]
1. (Rom. Myth.)
Defn: A Latin god of commerce and gain; — treated by the poets as identical with the Greek Hermes, messenger of the gods, conductor of souls to the lower world, and god of eloquence.
2. (Chem.)
Defn: A metallic element mostly obtained by reduction from cinnabar, one of its ores. It is a heavy, opaque, glistening liquid (commonly called quicksilver), and is used in barometers, thermometers, ect. Specific gravity 13.6. Symbol Hg (Hydrargyrum). Atomic weight 199.8. Mercury has a molecule which consists of only one atom. It was named by the alchemists after the god Mercury, and designated by his symbol, mercury.
Note: Mercury forms alloys, called amalgams, with many metals, and is thus used in applying tin foil to the backs of mirrors, and in extracting gold and silver from their ores. It is poisonous, and is used in medicine in the free state as in blue pill, and in its compounds as calomel, corrosive sublimate, etc. It is the only metal which is liquid at ordinary temperatures, and it solidifies at about -39º Centigrade to a soft, malleable, ductile metal.
3. (Astron.)
Defn: One of the planets of the solar system, being the one nearest the sun, from which its mean distance is about 36,000,000 miles. Its period is 88 days, and its diameter 3,000 miles.
4. A carrier of tidings; a newsboy; a messenger; hence, also, a newspaper. Sir J. Stephen. "The monthly Mercuries." Macaulay.