The mercurial disease. An enquiry into the history and nature of the disease produced in the human constitution by the use of mercury, with observations on its connexion with the lues venerea / [Andrew Mathias].

  • Mathias, Andrew, 1767?-1823.
Date:
1810
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mercurial disease. An enquiry into the history and nature of the disease produced in the human constitution by the use of mercury, with observations on its connexion with the lues venerea / [Andrew Mathias]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    I have known a solution of lunar caustic applied to mercurial ulcers ; but this may be an applica- tion of a very hazardous and precarious nature, and should never be used in the earlier stages of these wounds, nor while they are very irritable, nor when we suspect that the mercurial irritation is strong in the habit; for we should only irritate the ulcer to a greater degree, without any chance of removing it. When the ulcer appears to be free from any great degree ol irritation, when it bears any kind of dressing, and when the disease is of con- siderable standing, we may then, in some of these instances, try what touching the least irritable part of the sore will effect towards destroying a diseased surface, and towards exciting healthy granulations; but the experiment must be made with very great caution. A solution of blue vitriol produces, though in a less perfect manner, the same effect as the lunar caustic. The white vitriol may be tried in solution in its turn. I have seen a dressing, com- posed of the ceratum spermatis ceti^ and sarsapa- rilla powder agree for a time with these wounds very well. When the mercurial irritation is a general affec- tion of the habit, and when it has been aggravated by repeated courses of mercury from the disease not being well understood, the patient may be brought to such a state as to be past recovery ; or by a mortification, or by a rapid spreading of the mer- • Ceralum Spermatis Cell is now named, in the new London Pharmacopoeia of 1809| Ceratum Celacei,