Observations on the use and abuse of mercury, and on the precautions necessary in its employment / by A. Philips Wilson.

  • Philip, Alexander Philip Wilson, 1770-1847.
Date:
1805
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the use and abuse of mercury, and on the precautions necessary in its employment / by A. Philips Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mach, the action of vomiting is frequently excited, or if it passes into the bowels, na¬ ture still endeavours to carry it off by an increase of the peculiar motion of the intes¬ tines, and of the secretion from their sur¬ face ; so in the case before us, the morbid fullness which would in every instance arise, when perspiration suffers a check, is gene¬ rally prevented by the sympathy which subsists between the skin and several other secreting organs, in consequence of which, as soon as a check is given to the action of the former, some one of the latter, which secrete a similar fluid from the blood, is called into more vigorous action, and what should have passed by the skin is thrown off by the kidneys or bowels, sometimes by the glands of the nose, throat, and lungs, occa¬ sioning what we call a cold. This substitution of one excretion for another, if I may use the expression, is particularly apt to occur under the use of mercury, and seems to arise from the na¬ ture of this medicine being so stimulating that we cannot retain it in the system : if one yent is denied it, it quickly finds another. Hence