Lyle,

Sadly, I am one of the barium initiates. It goes away in decisive fashion.
I guess it's so foreign to the human body that it is an unwelcome and
definitely temporary guest of the GI tract.

I appreciate your information. I know absolutely nothing about the history
of dental repair/torture (or paint, or laxatives). Whatever this stuff was,
it was a toxic brew. Maybe someone was mixing up poison.

Nick


At 11:52 PM 9/26/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>On Friday, September 26, 2003, at 04:24 PM, Nick Honerkamp wrote:
>
>>I found a delftware drug jar base this summer at an early 19th century
>>plantation site in Greeneville, TN. There was a mystery substance
>>still in
>>the jar base, so I sent part of it out for spectographic analysis and
>>got
>>the following:
>>
>>No arsenic or mercury, but they did list as "strong" ( > 10%) barium,
>>calcium and lead.
>>
>>"Medium" (1% - 10%) estimates were given for aluminum and silicon.
>>Trace (<
>>0.1%) for copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, silver titanium.
>>
>>Organics (volatiles @ 1100' F) = 13.99%
>>
>>It bubbles like crazy in hydrochloric acid, so carbonate is present.
>>Next
>>step is an XRD. So far I've gotten three suggestions from various
>>chemists:
>>paint, a laxative, and a dental amalgam (i.e., what you fill cavities
>>with). Anybody have any other ideas, or sources I can check?
>
>Try the following site which has the info listed below:
>
>http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/elements/56.html
>
>History
>
>(Gr. barys, heavy) Baryta was distinguished from lime by Scheele in
>1774; the element was discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1808.
>
>Properties
>
>Barium is a metallic element, soft, and when pure is silvery white like
>lead; it belongs to the alkaline earth group, resembling calcium
>chemically. The metal oxidizes very easily and should be kept under
>petroleum or other suitable oxygen-free liquids to exclude air. It is
>decomposed by water or alcohol.
>
>Uses
>
>The metal is used as a "getter" in vacuum tubes. The most important
>compounds are the peroxide, chloride, sulfate, carbonate, nitrate, and
>chlorate. Lithopone, a pigment containing barium sulfate and zinc
>sulfide, has good covering power, and does not darken in the presence
>of sulfides. The sulfate, as permanent white is also used in paint, in
>X-ray diagnostic work, and in glassmaking. Barite is extensively used
>as a weighing agent in oil well drilling fluids, and is used in making
>rubber. The carbonate has been used as a rat poison, while the nitrate
>and chlorate give colors in pyrotechny. The impure sulfide
>phosphoresces after exposure to the light. All barium compounds that
>are water or acid soluble are poisonous. Naturally occurring barium is
>a mixture of seven stable isotopes. Twenty two other radioactive
>isotopes are known to exist.
>
>
>******************************************
>
>Dental amalgams I'd thought were used after the 3rd quarter of the 19th
>century. Barium  was definitely used in paints up to World War I when
>the Germans shut off supplies due to their control of African sources
>and it died out in that particular use. Most folks who ingest barium
>for radiological investigations view it as the antithesis of a laxative.
>
>Lyle Browning