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le_russe_satanMore from 'The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison' by John Emsley.
What he [Robert Boyle] did next distinguished him as a true chemist: he researched the properties of phosphorus and its reactions with other materials and published his findings not in the secret language of the alchemists but in plain English, and in a manner that would allow even a modern chemist to repeat what he had done. Whether they would want to repeat his observation that 'if the privy parts be rubb'd [with phosphorus] they will be inflamed for a good while after', is doubtful.
Why, oh, why would anyone rub a new, shining and easily combustible substance onto the privy parts? XDDD
'Pliny reported that more than four tonnes of mercury metal were imported into Rome every year. He also said that men who worked with the ore protected themselves against the dust by covering their heads with bladders.' *imagines, giggles*
