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Mercury-in-glass thermometers are generally no longer used in a medical setting in most modern countries, and are being phased out around the world (although they are still useful in scientific applications, such as barometers). Mercury is highly toxic, and does not metabolize out of the body normally.

Mercury has a number of physical properties that make it ideal for measuring pressure changes (heat, such as in a thermometer, creates a change in pressure inside a closed environment). It is a metal, nonmagnetic, very dense, but liquid at room temperature (mercury's freezing point is -39 C, and it boils at 357 C). It does not expand or contract very much with temperature changes, and thus will not burst out of a confined glass tube as long as there is a bit of room inside the tube (usually a vacuum or something like nitrogen) for movement. Also, such expansion and contraction is consistent and predictable.

Mercury is not the only substance that could be used for this purpose, but it is the best fit.

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