Jussieu, Antoine

J. M. Hoppensack stated in 1795 that the mercury mines of Almaden had been worked for at least 2287 years and that cinnabar from them was sent to ancient Rome in the form of powder or sand (58). A. de Galvez-Canero believed that the Spanish mercury mines have been worked since the third or fourth century B.C. (28). In the Memoires of the Acaddmie des Sciences of Paris for 1719, Antoine Jussieu published a first-hand description of the great mine and smelters at Almaden, Spain, which he had visited two years previously (233). He was surprised to find that the crops, trees, and inhabitants were not injured by the fumes, and that springs near the mine yielded good potable water. The slaves who worked and ate in the mine however suffered severely from mercury poisoning (231). 

Stevens, P.F., The Development of Biological Systematics Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu, Nature, and the Natural System, Columbia University Press, New York, 1994. 

On classifications in natural history, see Peter F. Stevens, The Development of Biological Systematics Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu, Nature, and the Natural System (New York Columbia University Press, 1994). For a broader analysis, see Ursula Klein, ed.. Spaces of Classification (Berlin Max-Planck Institut, 2002). 

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