Mercury or quicksilver has been known since ancient times. We do not know who discovered it.

Mercury was known to the ancient Chinese, Egyptians and Hindus and has been found in Egyptian tombs dating back to about 1500 B.C. (1), (2), (3)

In the fourth century B.C. we find Aristotle refers to mercury in writing as ?hydro-argyros? ? which translates as liquid-silver or water-silver. (4)

The Romans modified the Greek name slightly, referring to mercury as Hydragyrum, from which we get mercury?s modern chemical symbol Hg.

Our modern name for the element was provided by alchemists. Alchemists observed the element?s rapid, liquid flow, and likened it to the fastest moving planet, Mercury. (The planet had been named after the fast moving Roman messenger of the gods, Mercury. (3))

Alchemists believed mercury was the most important of all substances because it encompassed solid and liquid, earth and heaven, and life and death. They also believed it offered the path by which base metals could become gold and represented the quintessential property of fluidity. (5),(6) They were wrong, of course!