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2The clods, when collected in the laboratory, on account of their great dampness, are thrown into a furnace to dry; and the fumes that rise from them through the action of the fire fall condensed on the floor of the furnace, and are found to be quicksilver. But as, from the smallness of the drops which thus remain, they cannot be gathered up, they are swept into a vessel of water, in which they run together and re-unite. These, when they fill a vessel of the capacity of four sextarii, weigh one hundred pounds.
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