Note 521 — PHARMACOLOGIA. (continued 4)
Reading edition
Ὑδραργυρος of the Greeks, from its fluidity and colour.
Quicksilver. Quick in the old Saxon tongue signifies living, an epithet derived from its mobility.
Mercury. Mythologists inform us that he was the winged messenger of the Gods, and the Patron of Thieves,—What name therefore could be more appropriate for the metal in question than that of this Deity? for it is not only distinguished from all other metals by its mobility, but its universal agency has rendered it the resource of those worst of Thieves—Quacks and Nostrummongers.