I wouldn't claim to be an expert, but according to my medical dictionary
mercury poisoning was common in some trades in the past - in particular in
the preparation of felt used in hats. That is where the expression "mad as
a hatter" comes from.
This may be a silly question because I have been following this thread very
closely but is there any evidence that strings were loaded with mercury or
anything else apart from the fact that some works of art show the lower
courses differently coloured?
Monica
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martyn Hodgson" <hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk>
To: "David van Ooijen" <davidvanooi...@gmail.com>; "Mathias Rösel"
<mathias.roe...@t-online.de>
Cc: <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 3:08 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Laurent de La Hyre
Regarding the use of mercury (or lead) to load a gut string: if it were
a problem wouldn't we have seen at least some contemporary reports of
professional lutenists with poisining symptoms - I'm not aware of any.
But perhaps the amount of mercuric compound is so relatively small
(unlike with the hatters who rubbed raw mercury into hats with their
fingers) that there's no noticeable effect. Surely a toxologist should
be able to inform us....
MH
--- On Mon, 23/2/09, "Mathias Roesel" <mathias.roe...@t-online.de>
wrote:
From: "Mathias Roesel" <mathias.roe...@t-online.de>
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Laurent de La Hyre
To: "David van Ooijen" <davidvanooi...@gmail.com>
Cc: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Date: Monday, 23 February, 2009, 2:23 PM
"David van Ooijen" <davidvanooi...@gmail.com> schrieb:
On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 9:26 AM, "Mathias Roesel"
<mathias.roe...@t-online.de> wrote:
>> rarely touch it). With later providing you play a lot, the skin
contact is
>> enormous.
>
> You might consider playing with nails, then.
On both hands?
David
No, RH, of course. It will reduce poisoning by 50%!
But seriously I wonder if densifying a gut string with mercury, which is
easily composed with organic materials, means that afterwards the string
still is poisonous. And, no, I'm not willing to try it.
--
Mathias
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