OBSERVATIONS
ON THE
USE AND ABUSE
OF
MERCURY,
AND ON
THE PRECAUTIONS
NECESSARY
IN ITS EMPLOYMENT.
BY
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and of the RoyalSociety of Edinburgh, &c.
Winchester.
Printed and Sold by JAMES ROBBINS.
Sold also by Messrs. CADELL and DAVIES, Strand; MURRAY, Fleet-street;
and CROSBY and Co. Stationer’s Court, Ludgate
Hill, LONDON.
1805.
The following Observations are addressedto the Public, with a view, on the one hand,to do away certain erroneous prepositionsrespecting the effects of Mercury, whichimpede the necessary employment of it;and on the other, to call its attention to theimpropriety of an indiscriminate use of thismedicine, by which much harm is oftendone, and the medicine itself brought intodisrepute. The best way to effect thesepurposes seems to be, to make the publicacquainted with what is really to be apprehendedfrom an improper use of mercury,and the circumstances in which its badeffects shew themselves; by which everyone may be enabled to distinguish theseeffects from such as proceed from othercauses, as well as be warned against a useof this medicine which has become tooprevalent.
Physicians will agree, that we do notpossess a more valuable medicine than mercury.[4]Not to mention the diseases for thecure of which it was first introduced,which, without its aid, almost uniformlyprove fatal, and in which it is almost uniformlysuccessful, we may appeal for thetruth of this observation to its effects insome of the most dangerous forms of scrophula,in dropsies of different kinds, ininflammations, particularly chronic inflammations,and induration and enlargement ofthe different viscera.[A]
[A] If we except worm cases, in which mercury probablyacts on the worms themselves, the various diseasesin which mercury is useful, may perhaps bereduced to the two heads of inflammation and glandularobstruction. I believe there is nothing moreerroneous than the opinion, that mercury will occasionallysucceed in almost all diseases. This opinionhas led to its employment in improper cases, and tendedconsequently to bring it into discredit. I have never