amalga- +

1. A silver-white, naturally occurring isometric alloy of silver and mercury having a brilliant metallic luster.
2. Any alloy of mercury with another metal or other metals.

It has been used for more than 150 years in dental restorations; only gold has been used longer for this purpose.

It is known that a fraction of the mercury in amalgam is absorbed by the body and that people with amalgam restorations in their teeth have higher concentrations of mercury in various tissues (including the blood, urine, kidneys, and brain) than people without amalgam fillings.

In 1993, the Public Health Service of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a report acknowledging that scientific data are insufficient to conclude that amalgam fillings have compromised health. Furthermore, there is no evidence that removal of amalgam fillings has a beneficial effect on one's health; however, there are others who claim that over time, there is serious health damage.

It was not until about 1980 that serious consideration was given to the possibility that mercury vapor escaping from amalgam fillings might be affecting health, specifically producing subtle effects on the central nervous system. Such effects have been reported among dentists and other dental personnel, whose exposures are well below industrial levels but above those from fillings alone.

Apparently, further studies will be needed to ascertain whether the combined exposure to the metals in dental amalgam may lower the threshold for adverse immunological reactions.

1. To combine into a unified or integrated whole; to unite.
2. To combine two or more organizations or things into one unified whole, or to take the form of one unified whole.
3. To unite or blend with another metal; to alloy a metal with mercury, or to be alloyed with mercury.
4. Etymology: from 1660, in Boyle's New Experiments, verb use of earlier (1642-1647) participle amalgamate, probably borrowed from Medieval Latin amalgamatus, past participle of amalgamare, from amalgama.

1. The treating of precious-metal ores with mercury for the purpose of extracting their values.
2. The mixing of mercury with another metal, or metals, to form an alloy.
3. The process of separating metal from ore by alloying the metal with mercury; formerly used for gold and silver recovery, where it has been superseded by the cyanide process.

A blending of the two races; specifically, "whites" and "blacks".

"Blending of the two races by amalgamation is just what is needed for the perfection of both", a white Boston clergyman wrote in 1845.

Few American abolitionists were proponents of amalgamation, but many were called amalgamationists by proslaveryites in the two decades or so before the Civil War in the U.S.

This Americanism term for anyone who favors a social and genetic mixture of whites and blacks is first recorded in 1838, when Harriet Martineau (June 12, 1802–June 27, 1876, an English writer and philosopher, renowned in her day as a controversial journalist, political economist, abolitionist and life-long feminist) complained that people were calling her an amalgamationist when she didn't even know what the word meant.

Amalgamationist quotes

1. White America is definitely and unalterably opposed to the integration and amalgamation of the two races.
2. Black America, the masses, are equally opposed to the integration and amalgamation of the races.
3. The drive for more and more amalgamation is, and always has been spearheaded by those "coloureds" who maintain a separatist society within the black race, and who are not, and never have been, identified with the black masses.

An iron container in which precious-metal ores can be ground with water and further treated with mercury and chemicals until amalgamation is completed; used especially, formerly, to separate gold from its ore.

A flat metal surface on which mercury is spread so that it will amalgate with gold particles as gold-bearing ore is washed over it.

1. A machine used to bring powdered ore in close contact with mercury to amalgamate metals contained in the ore.
2. A machine for mixing mercury and an alloy to make a dental amalgam.

Measured quantities of mercury and alloy are placed in a capsule, which is rapidly vibrated for a few seconds by means of an electric motor. This can also be done by hand using a mortar and pestle.

A retort (vessel where substances are distilled or decomposed by heat) in which mercury is distilled off from gold, or silver amalgam is obtained in amalgamation.

A dental amalgam consisting of mercury and copper.

Unlike a silver and tin alloy, it is prepared a moment before use by heating the required quantity over a flame. The alloy then melts and remains plastic for a time, even at room temperature.

It set after insertion in the tooth cavity. Copper amalgam is said to have bactericidal properties.

A soft mixture of mercury and alloys of silver, tin, and copper that becomes very hard when set and has been used to fill tooth cavities; however, such application are being replaced with another plastic-type of filling.