The Mineral Kingdom is very subject to Damps, or noxious Streams, and often found in Mines, Pits,——and in Kinds various. There are also Exhalations, a sort of Fumes issuing from Body, and diffusing themselves in the Atmosphere. Some make difference between Vapours and Exhalations: The Term _Vapour_, they say, is appropriated to the moist Fumes raised from Water, and _Exhalation_, to the dry ones emitted from solid Bodies, as Earth, Fire, Minerals, Sulphur. The nocuous Effluvia sent forth from them may infect the Air, and cause epidemical Distempers, and even new Diseases. About Mines and deep Caverns, are frequently found copious Exhalations continually streaming out, which, in a Moment, destroy any Animal that comes within their reach; so much as the very Insects themselves not escaping: Therefore these Places were by the Ancients called _Gehennæ_, _Averni_,—intimating thereby, that a _Mineral Pit_ was _Hell_, and that _Subterraneous Exhalations_ were _Steams_ from the _Fiery Lake_. _STRABO_ takes notice of a _Cave_ or _Grotto_ in _Natolia_, from whence issue pestilential Vapours that infect the Air: No sooner is any Animal put in, but it immediately dies. Bulls have been put in, and suddenly taken out dead. Sparrows that have been thrown in, dropt down dead instantly. The _Turks_ fancy it to be haunted by evil Spirits, because those who had the Curiosity to enter it, have either _died_ or fallen desperately _sick_[40]. Footnote 40: _Strabo Geograph._ Mineral Poisons are more or less dangerous, as their Salts receive a greater or less Force from the metallic Particles: And hence, as the most virulent may be mitigated by breaking the Points of the saline Crystals, the most innocent Minerals may become corrosive, by combining them with Salts, as is seen in the Preparations of Silver, Antimony, Iron. Nothing more fatal than mineral Poison, which often brings swift Destruction without remedy. To a large Dog, says the learned Dr. _Mead_, was given a Drachm of _Mercury Sublimate_, mixt with a little Bread, who after violent Evacuations, died next Morning. The same Gentleman observes, that in _Arsenic_ is a very noxious quality: the factitious white is the most violent of all kinds, superior in force to _Mercury sublimate_. These mortiferous Steams that flow from the Earth, are called _Mephites_, _poisonous Damps_; and are very common in Countries fruitful of Minerals and Mines: _Damps_ happen in most of the _Hungarian-Mines_, not only in the direct Passages, where they walk on horizontally, but also in the perpendicular Descents. Now, to guard themselves against the fatal Effects of these Exhalations, they sometimes clear their way by Fire and the Bellows, but generally by long Tubes or Pipes, reaching from top to bottom, thro’ which they let the Air in and out; and by this Circulation of the Air, they carry on their Work for some time without Danger.