Observations on the use and abuse of mercurial medicines in various diseases / by James Hamilton ; with notes and an appendix by Ansel W. Ives.

  • Hamilton, James, 1767-1839.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the use and abuse of mercurial medicines in various diseases / by James Hamilton ; with notes and an appendix by Ansel W. Ives. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    no marks by which such peculiarities of habit can be distinguished, and there is no method of ar- resting their progress.—Inflammatory complaints may be subdued by bloodletting and other reme- dies ; but in many cases where the mercurial ac- The susceptibilities of the system form a highly interesting and im- portant part of its economy. Thpy vary at different periods of life, and are either changed or modified hy all the circumstances which tend to diversify the states of health and disease. Some constitutions are extremely sensible to the action of certain agents, while others will receive the full force of their impressions without imparting any evidence of their operation. A similar remark will apply to the same individual, under different conditions of body, and at distant periods of time. In the case just related, the patient was not susceptible of the effect of mercury at the time of its administration, nor until three months afterwards. That this medicine should remain in the body during that period, and then produce its specific disease, is indeed a surprising anomaly. But on reflection, it will be perceived that the phenomena of the case are analogous to others with which physicians are familiarly acquainted. The contagious principles of smallpox measles, syphilis and hydrophobia, and I may add, the miasmata arising from corrupted animal and vegetable matter, remain in the system for a considerable time before they show their specific action on the body. The poisons of smallpox, measles, and some other diseases, usually evince their morbid powers within a definite period, while miasmata, and the virus of hydrophobia are in this respect extreme- ly variable, producing disease sometimes within a few days, and at other times not until after a lapse of several weeks or months. Con- tagious disorders are. for the most part, so regular and certain in their accession after the reception ol their respective poisons in the system, that we must regard their occurrence as arising out of a sus- ceptibility which is common to every individual. On the contrary, the comparatively few who sicken on exposure to the influence of miasmata and the hydrophobic virus, and the difference of time iu their several attacks, show conclusively that the susceptibilities of the constitution are numerous and changeable.—The nature of these F.