By Joshua Gulick

For years, there have been rumors, almost in the urban legend category, that the Soviet Union had developed some mysterious substance called "red mercury" that can be used in nuclear weapons construction, and that this "red mercury" may be available on the black market for $100,000-$300,000 per kilo. Rumors have touted it as being able to just about anything including: making stealth aircraft stealthier, infrared sensors more sensitive, counterfeits harder to detect, and fission and fusion bombs smaller and easier to construct. It may be radioactive or not. It may be the densest material or it may not. I don't know about any of this, but I did run across an obscure reference in John French's alchemical text, The Art of Distillation, Book III (published in 1651) that mentions a red form of elemental mercury as an intermediate when making a "good purgative and diaphoretic medicine." I would wager that red mercury may be useful for much more than destruction. What can kill can cure, eh? Anyway, the truth makes free.

There's not much more to say about this, so I'll just give you the reference. If you find this information useful, don't forget who helped you.

"HOW TO TURN QUICKSILVER INTO A WATER WITHOUT MIXING ANYTHING WITH IT AND TO MAKE THEREOF A GOOD PURGATIVE AND DIAPHORIC MEDICINE

Take an ounce of quicksilver, not purified. Put it into a bolt head of glass which you must nip up. Set it over a strong fire in sand for the space of two months, and the quicksilver will be turned into a red sparkling precipitate. Take this powder and lay it thin on a marble in a cellar for the space of two months, and it will be turned into a water which may be safely taken inwardly. It will work a little upwards and downwards, but chiefly by sweat.

Note that you may set diverse glasses with the same matter in the furnace, so that you may make the greater quantity at the time."