The crystal-structures of the sulphides of mercury

Abstract

Mercuric sulphide, HgS, occurs in nature as two well-known modifications, cinnabar and metacinnabarite. The latter is some what rare and occurs as black cubic crystals possessing the symmetry of the zinc-bleude, i.e. the ditesseral polar-class. It is considered to be identical with chemically precipitated black mercuric sulphide, the density of both being 7.81. Cinnabar is of more common occurrence and is found as well-defined crystals and in the massive state. The crystals are assigned to the trigonal holoaxial class. The rhombohedral angle is 92°30' r correspouding to an axial ratio c/a of 1.1453. The crystals possess a very good cleavage parallel to the prism (21̄1̄)=(101̄0). The rotation of the plane of polarization, for red light traversing the crystal in a direction parallel to the optic axis, is 315° per millimetre, a value roughly eighteen times that of a similar thickness of quartz.