Tho’ withal we may upon this Occasion remark, that the extreme Gravity of this Mineral alone, however serviceable it may be in other Respects; yet when it happens in so great a Quantity to Obstruct the Capillary Ducts, as that the Force of the Circling Fluid is not sufficient to Wash it away, must necessarily induce Symptoms troublesome and bad enough, as _Spasms_, _Contractions_, _Palsies_, &c. which They do commonly Experience, who have either been too often dawbed with _Mercurial Ointments_, or for a long time imploy’d in rubbing the _Quicksilver_ upon _Looking-Glasses_; for the Internal Use of It will never produce any such Mischiefs. As for _Sublimate_ then, most certain it is, that the _Saline_ Particles do impart to the _Mercury_ this Malignant Quality; or to speak more properly, That the _Salt_ receives from the _Mercurial Corpuscles_ such an Increase of its Gravity and _Momentum_, as renders its Cutting Corrosion more Effectual and Penetrating; for the manner after which this Matter is done, is plainly this. The _Globules_ of the _Mercury_, tho’ so minutely divided by the Action of the Fire, as to rise in the form of a _Fume_, yet are still Solid and Ponderous Bodies; ’tis all one to the present purpose, whether We suppose ’em perfectly _Sphærical_, or with the Learned _Gulielmini_ (121) _Sphæroidical_, for in both Cases, by reason of their extreme Parvity, being perhaps Simple and Elementary Bodies, they will easily be lodg’d in the Pores and Interstices of the _Saline Crystals_; which being compos’d of the _Atoms_ of _Salt_, variously by _Sublimation_ combin’d and united, are a kind of Cutting _Lamellæ_ or Blades; the force of which could never have been very penetrating, upon the account of their Lightness and easie Dissolution, if the _Mercury_, without blunting their Edge, or breaking their Figure, did not lend ’em an Additional Weight, and thus at the same time strengthen their Action, and prevent their quick Solution by the Juices of the Stomach; which cannot now disjoin their Compounding Parts, because the Vacuities into which they should, in order to do this, insinuate themselves, are already possess’d, and taken up by the _Mercurial Globules_. In short, These _Crystals_, which are to be considered as so many sharp Knives or Daggers, Wounding and Stabbing the tender Coats of the Stomach, and thus causing excessive Pains, with an Abrasion of their Natural _Mucus_, and (upon the constant Sense of Irritation) continual Vomitings, _&c._ must of necessity, sticking here and there in the capillary Vessels, stop the Passage of the Blood in several Places, whereupon it Stagnates, and there follow little Inflammations, which growing higher and higher, terminate quickly in perfect Ulcers and Gangrenes; and these though singly very small, yet many in number, do all together make up one continued and incurable Mortification.