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Satanic Rites 4
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Satanic Rites - Issue 4 (1993-05-29)(Destiny).adf
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Solution
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1990-01-05
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}0a0000jfff
{ePrice's Powder - a solution? {a little difficulty. When I presented a
{f --------------------------{i dramatised version of the story on BBC
~iff.bridgete
}0o8eb
television early in 1952, a flood of
letters, `phone calls, postcards and
telegrams poured into {nLime Grove{i
{nStudios {jfrom dispensers, researchers,
}0ofcb
metallurgists and industrial chemists
in {nvarious parts {iof the country, all
giving me - in one shape or another -
the following solution:
}0o8eb
{nJames Price {imay have been utterly
sincere in his beliefs and claims, but
}0m8de0n8eb0ofcb0ld34
{iThis article is a follow up to in fact he never produced gold - he
"{lPrice's Powder{i". You'd be a right merely {kextracted {iit from mercury! In
coat-hanger if you read this first the eighteenth century most of the
because it would make little sense. stocks of mercury in Britain were
imported from the {nContinent{i, and
To the trained chemist the riddle of contained a small amount of gold in
'{mthe last alchemist{i' appears to offer the form of a {lpaint-preservative{i, but
this was a closely guarded `trade legend from fact, I was left with one
secret'. Price simply found a way to problem: what made Price suddenly
`recover' small amounts of the decide to take his own life?
precious metal...
The answer was obvious - in that last
Many of my informants believe that demonstration he discovered his own
Price's illness was formed by {narsenic{i, mistake!
which they suggested might have been
one of the ingredients of the {mImagine the terrible disillusionment!{i
mysterious red powder used in his He had thrown up everything, gambled
process. his own career on this discovery: he
had broken with his {mfiancee{i, ruined
With such expert advice, I was able to his health and lost many friends.
dismiss the evidence concerning the Now, in one blinding flash the hideous
mysterious stranger supposed to have truth bursts upon him - the gold has
called on Price's predecessor at been in the mercury the whole time!
Guildford, {k Dr. Irish{i, with a portion In despair he snatches up a bottle of
of the {nPhilosopher's Stone{i. This prussic acid...
testimony was pure hearsay, totally
unsupported - whereas all the rest was Naturally the two witnesses of his
corroborated by an impressive array of suicide, {lSir Philip Clarke {iand{l Dr.{i
witnesses. Having thus separated {lSpence{i, would want to keep silent
about the tragedy. The honour-code of And that's the truth. -{nEd{i]
their profession ruled that they
should not besmirch the memory of a {m*{k Finish {m*{a
colleague and fellow member of the
Royal Society. Besides, one of them ({nF7 {itakes you to the {mMAIN INDEX{a, or you
may have been the first to spot the can click on the filing cabinet!)
fallacy in the `transmutation' process
and, in an unguarded moment, blurted
it out to Price - thus leading the
young man to the dreadful discovery,
the disappointment which was too great
for him to face.
[{nAh ha! {i But you forget that our
friend Price was working with Mercury
in the Eighteenth century. Mercury
fumes are {lhighly poisonous{i and
breathing them in even the smallest
quantities can cause braindamage.
Hatters used to use mercury in the
manufacture of top hats and bowlers,
hence the phrase `{mMad as a hatter{i'.