MERCURIFICATION, in metallurgic chemistry, the obtaining the mercury from metallic minerals in its fluid form. For the effecting this, those who have been engaged in these researches have proposed three methods. The first is by means of a certain mercury, so prepared as to have a dissolving power, by which it could take up the mercuries of metals in the same manner as water dissolves salt from ashes. The second is by means of certain regenerating salts, such as sal ammoniac, which are to detain the more earthy parts of metals, and leave their mercuries separate or separable from them by sublimation or otherwise; and the third method is by means of a large lens or burning-glass, in the focus whereof, if any metal be applied, its mercurial part is said to separate and go off in fume, which when collected and condensed, appears to be running mercury.
The first of these methods would be very easy if the proper mercury were to be readily produced; the second is extremely laborious, and requires much patience and reiteration. But the third seems easy enough, and practicable to advantage, when a glass of three or four feet in diameter is at hand, the sky serene, and the sun shines strong.
For other processes, the reader may consult Junker's Conspectus Chemicæ. But these mercurified metals, or their mercurial principle rendered sensible, are a kind of philosophical mercury, which, although they resemble ordinary mercury, are nevertheless said by persons exercised in such studies, to differ from it considerably, by having a greater specific gravity, by more effectually penetrating and dissolving metals, by a stronger adhesion to these, and by a less volatility.