"In the first century A.D., Dioscorides Pedanios of Anazarbus, Cilicia, gave the following process for preparing metallic mercury: Putting an iron spoon having Cinnabaris in an earthen pot, they cover the cup, darwing it about with clay, then they make a fire under with coals; and ye soot that sticks to ye pot, being scraped off & cooled, becomes Hydrargyrum [mercury]. It is found also in ye place where silver is melted, standing together by drops on ye roofs. And some say that Hydrargyrum is found by itself in ye mines. But it is kept in glassen, or leaden, or tinnen, or silver vessels, for it eats through all other matter, and makes it run out."