Observations on the effects of mercury on the organs of hearing, and the improper use of it in cases of nervous deafness / [William Wright].

  • Wright, William, 1773-1860
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the effects of mercury on the organs of hearing, and the improper use of it in cases of nervous deafness / [William Wright]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    which is the true cause of the complaint,, is adminisr tered in larger doses, till many of the victims to a fashionable remedy sink into the grave. It is well known to the medical world, (hat eruptive diseases of peculiar malignancy are often produced in adults by mercury, yet the same diseases in children are rarely attributed to this cause; indeed, the use of this dangerous remedy, which ought never to be administered except under the direction and super¬ intendance of a competent medical adviser, is now so common, that fathers and mothers of families give to their children and dependants blue pill, or calomel, more freely, and with less of caution, as to damp or cold, than their grandmothers would have ventured to administer a little sennas tea, or a few grains of rhubarb. The present generation have reason to be thankful for the caution which their ancestors adopted in regard to them; but I much question whether posterity will, in their debilitated constitu¬ tions, find the same cause to rejoice in the wisdom and caution of their progenitors. That mercury is an useful and even indispensable auxiliary in many cases, I freely admit; bpt it is a medicine of such a nature, that none but scientific men should be allowed to exhibit it. About one hundred years ago, our physicians found this medicine rather unmanageable, for they discoun¬ tenanced it's external application, and advised that it should be given internally when it was absolutely required. Such, however, has been the change of opinion on that point, although ancients and moderns agree as to its deleterious effects on the constitution, that I find the following observations in two moderu authors,both in considerable practice and great repute. “ When mercury can be thrown into the constjtu- “ don with propriety by the external method, it is