Elements of materia medica and therapeutics; including the recent discoveries and analysis of medicines / [Anthony Todd Thomson].

  • Anthony Todd Thomson
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of materia medica and therapeutics; including the recent discoveries and analysis of medicines / [Anthony Todd Thomson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1104/1108 page 1076
    ! water; and an orange-coloured oxide of Mercury is precipitated. Solution of arsenic does not decompose it; but the arsenite of potassa, as well as the tartrate of antimony and potassa, and the nitrate of silver, decompose it. The fixed and volatile oils, the resins, all vegetable infusions and decoctions containing gum, sugar, extractive, the bitter principle, tannin, milk, and gelatine, reduce it to the state of a protochloride: it cannot be long pre¬ served in distilled waters or weak spirits, calomel and muriatic i acid being always formed. Acetate and subacetate of lead, sul- phuret of potassa, all the hydrosulphurets, and soaps, also de¬ compose it. These substances cannot, therefore, be prescribed in conjunction with Bichloride of Mercury. It is a compound of Chlorine . 26.48 or 2 prop. (35.45 q- 2) = TO.9 Mercury . 73.52 — 1 prop. --- — 200 100.00 Equivalent 270.9 (Hy. -f- 20.) The London College orders a solution of the bichloride to be kept ready prepared : but, for the reasons above stated, it is a bad preparation. Bichloride of Mercury is a most powerful Excitant. Unless it be given in very minute doses, and in solution, it causes ex¬ cruciating pain in swallowing, nausea, and vomiting ; quickly (destroying the vitality of the stomach, and corroding it; exciting i inflammation of the lungs, the heart, and the salivary glands, with oppression of the brain and nervous system. Its vapour is highly dangerous to those who breathe it. In small doses, how¬ ever, it is a valuable Excitant in secondary venereal affections ; and in many cutaneous diseases, particularly leprous eruptions. Whether this preparation enters the circulation, or, as Mr. Brodie has maintained, acts solely through the medium of the nerves, is undetermined: it has not been detected either in the solids or fluids of the body; but it is possible that it may, never¬ theless, pass into the circulation; for every one conversant with chemical investigations, in reference to the detection of medicinal agents in the blood and secretions, must be aware of the extreme difficulty of detecting them, even when they have been injected into the blood. One fact noticed bv Mr. Brodie affords some t/ reason for thinking that it is absorbed; namely, its effects are not altered by the division of the eighth pair of nerves, which would be the case did it act solely through the nerves. When it has been taken in an overdose, the best antidote is albumen, and this appears to depend on a circumstance suggested by Dr. Christison, “ that compounds, formed by corrosive sub¬ limate with animal and vegetable substances, are either not poi¬ sonous, or, at least, very much inferior in activity to corrosive sublimate itself.” It is, however, a curious fact, and one which renders albumen a less useful antidote than might be expected,
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