Comment on The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 • Kusuriya no Hitorigoto 2nd Season - Episode 8 discussion
nyan@lemmy.cafe 4 days ago
Okay, so . . . non-decaying corpse? My first thought is that there were high quantities of mercury involved, doubly so since it was mentioned earlier in the episode.
ReluctantZen@feddit.nl 4 days ago
Is that a property of mercury? Preventing decay?
nyan@lemmy.cafe 4 days ago
It kills insects and microorganisms (just like it kills almost anything else). So the net effect would be preservative, and it’s still used as such in a few obscure contexts despite its toxicity—the American FDA allows very small quantities as a preservative in eye makeup, for instance.
Given the mess on the floor of that one room, there may have been a considerable amount of cinnabar (mercury sulfide) pigment present. And liquid mercury was widely used in Chinese alchemy. Plenty of possibly routes for contact, either accidental or intentional.