Medical arguments, approving Clare's mode of absorption.

  • Clare, Peter, 1738-1786.
Date:
[1780?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical arguments, approving Clare's mode of absorption. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Y'OUR PRACTICE recommends itfelf to me from feveral Confederations: That Calomel, rubbed on the infide of the mouth, may be abforbed, appears probable from Analogy. The particles of blood feen in the fimple Microfcope, are larger than thofe of levigated Calomel; yet, as I obferved, I have had many opportunities of feeing the abforbents turgid with red blood. II. The furface, on which you propofe the Calomel fhould be rubbed, is, in its own nature, a better abforbing fur face, than, perhaps, any other, acceftible to fridtion, in the body. III. The abforption of Calomel from the infide of the mouth, appears, from the Teftimony of many of your patients, undeniable : For, if they rub Calomel every day on the infide of the mouth, and it does not gripe or purge ; and if the common effedt of it, taken into the flomach, is, that it certainly gripes and purges ; then we muft conclude that the Calomel, given in your way, has not gone into the flomach, whilfl its producing evident ♦effedts on the dileafe, for which it was exhibited, fhews, that it has certainly got into the habit, or, in other words, that it has been ablorbed by the furface to which it was applied. IV. Calomel abforbed in your way, mufl be the mod eligible method, becaufe it is lefs apt to irritate the flomach and inteflines, (and, by purging, to deflroy it’s proper effedf,) than it would be, if it’s firfl adtion was immediately on thefe parts. % Your’s is a lefs tedious, lefs laborious procefs, than the common one of rubbing mercurial ointment. To be obliged to rub, with their owm hands, half a drachm of mercurial ointment, is a labour only to be conceived by thofe who have experienced it. Nothing is more univerfally complained of. What then muff it be when half an ounce, or even a wdiole ounce is rubbed ? VI. Your method alfo recommends itfelf as a neater and more convenient one, than the rubbing mercurial ointment. VIL Your’s is better, cxteris paribus, than the common modes of exhibiting mer¬ cury internals, as it employs fridtion. vin. It appears preferable to 'the rubbing mercurial ointment, as watery fluids •may be prefumed to be more readily abforbed than oils ; have notiomeof the difagrecable qualities of oils, and there are fome reafons to'believe, that Saliva, and mercury make a more efficacious compound than mercury and oil. IX. Your’s appears to be a more expeditious way of giving the mercurial Stimulus to the Syflem,.and of eradicating the Venereal Jims. X. My Experiments, as far as they go; confirm your Practice A ExtraSl from Mr. CruikJ}jankys Letter to Clare.