Cinnabar itself is a mercuric sulfide mineral occurring in red crystals. Mercury sulfide is used as a red pigment. The Miño river was named after this mercuric sulfide mineral. In Spanish naming customs, people carry two surnames, the first paternal the second maternal.
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Cinnabar is a deep red-orange mineral, mercuric sulfide, HgS; the principal ore of mercury; the pigment vermilion is extracted from this ore.
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Mercury sulfide, mercuric sulfide, mercury sulphide, or mercury(II) sulfide is a chemical compound composed of the chemical elements mercury and sulfur. It is represented by the chemical formula HgS. It is virtually insoluble in water.
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A heavy, silvery d-block element, mercury is the only metallic element that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure; the only other element that is liquid under these conditions is the halogen bromine, though metals such as caesium, gallium, and rubidium melt just above room temperature. Mercury occurs in deposits throughout the world mostly as cinnabar (mercuric sulfide). The red pigment vermilion is obtained by grinding natural cinnabar or synthetic mercuric sulfide. Mercury is used in thermometers, barometers, manometers, sphygmomanometers, float valves, mercury switches, mercury relays, fluorescent lamps and other devices, though concerns about the element's toxicity have led to mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers being largely phased out in clinical environments in favor of alternatives such as alcohol- or galinstan-filled glass thermometers and thermistor- or infrared-based electronic instruments.
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The mineral was described in 1925 and named "curtisite" after the local resident L. Curtis who called attention to it. The crystals are square or six sided flakes, 1 mm in diameter, yellow to pistachio green in transmitted light. It is associated with opaline silica, realgar (arsenic sulfide) and metacinnabarite (mercuric sulfide), which had been deposited in that order before it.
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Mercury(I) sulfide or mercurous sulfide is a hypothetical chemical compound of mercury and sulfur, with elemental formula . Its existence has been disputed; it may be stable below 0 °C or in suitable environments, but is unstable at room temperature, decomposing into metallic mercury and mercury(II) sulfide (mercuric sulfide, cinnabar). Ronald L. Rich (2007): "Zinc through Mercury". In: Inorganic Reactions in Water, pages 289–306.
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Many of the historical pigments were dangerous, and many pigments still in use are highly toxic. Some of the most poisonous pigments, such as Paris green (copper(II) acetoarsenite) and orpiment (arsenic sulfide), have fallen from use. Many pigments are toxic to some degree. Commonly used reds and yellows are produced using cadmium, and vermilion red uses natural or synthetic mercuric sulfide or cinnabar.
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From China, the use of gunpowder spread to Japan, the Mongols, the Muslim world, and Europe. Gunpowder was used by the Mongols against the Hungarians in 1241, and in Europe by the 14th century. Chinese alchemy was closely connected to Taoist forms of traditional Chinese medicine, such as Acupuncture and Moxibustion. In the early Song dynasty, followers of this Taoist idea (chiefly the elite and upper class) would ingest mercuric sulfide, which, though tolerable in low levels, led many to suicide.
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Ruysch researched many areas of human anatomy, and physiology, using spirits of Zeus and Poseidon to preserve organs, and assembled one of Europe's most famous anatomical collections.Israel, J.I (1995) The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477-1806, p. 907. His chief skill was the preparation and preservation of specimens in a secret liquor balsamicum and he believed to be one of the first to use arterial embalming to this effect. He developed an injection from mercuric sulfide, which originated from cinnabar, a naturally occurring red-colored mineral.
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In his thesis he claimed that the precipitate obtained in such a manner was nothing more than an intimate mixture of mercury(II) sulfide (mercuric sulfide, cinnabar) and metallic mercury , which could be separated by heating or grinding. (Guibourt also denied the reality of mercurous oxide , for the same reason.)Nicolas-Jean- Baptiste-Gaston Guibourt (1816): "Thèse sur le Mercure et sur ses Combinaisons avec l’Oxigène et le Soufre". École Spéciale de PharmacieNicolas-Jean- Baptiste-Gaston Guibourt (1816): "Thèse sur le Mercure et sur ses Combinaisons avec l’Oxigène et le Soufre". Journal de Pharmacie, volume 2, pages 296-310 and 365-375. Also in Annales de Chimie, volume 1, pages 422–426.W. T. Brande (1825): "Facts towards the Chemical History of Mercury". Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature, and Arts, volume 18 (XVIII), issue 36 (XXXVI), article VII, page 292. Available at the Web Archive with ID in.ernet.dli.
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