Mercury stark naked : a series of letters addressed to Dr. Beddoes, stripping that poisonous mineral of its medical pretensions ... / by Isaac Swainson.

  • Swainson, Isaac, 1746-1812.
Date:
1797
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mercury stark naked : a series of letters addressed to Dr. Beddoes, stripping that poisonous mineral of its medical pretensions ... / by Isaac Swainson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/74 (page 12)
    How are tliefe to be aftected or remedied ?—The folidiSs fay, by the ufe of minerals applied to Simu- late the folids. This would prove too much : and would take the medical and profitable adminiftration of minerals out of their hands ; for Simulating lotions and unguents, frequently the difguifed vehicles of mercury, anti¬ mony, arfenic, and lead, would put in their claim, and fnatch the patient from the phyfician. It is known, however, that external application* alone, by Simulating the fur face, and obSrufting the excretions, are, in fuch cafes, generally injurious, and often fatal. • The difpofitions of the fecretory organs muS be changed«~and can it be a queftion, either in reafon or faft, whether this change be beS efFefled by the agi¬ tation or Simulus of a poifonous mineral, “ putting nature to a Siiftor by fupplying what is defec¬ tive, by furnifhirig a vegetable and nutritious Jiimulus to the chyle, the lymph, and blood, which will infal¬ libly, by a certain inSind and law of nature, carry it to the parts that need it. The fympathy or intercourse between the folids and the Suids of the human body, is certainly of the ut- moS importance, and defigned by nature for mutual fupport. In fome difeafes, when the machine cannot be furniSied in the common way, the folids fupply the deleft by returning what they have received from „ the fluids, and the animal becomes lean. The fluids feem to be rather more the objefls of our attention, certainly more atceflible to our reme-