CHLORIDE OF MERCURY.

469

Melancholy experience compels me to contradict them. Many timesI saw, under those large and long-continued doses of calomel, thehydrocephalic symptoms suddenly vanish, and inflammation of theintestines arise, which terminated in death. Still oftener I observedthis unfavourable accident from an incautious use of calomel in croup :viz. where all the frightful symptoms of this tracheal inflammation,which threatened suffocation, suddenly vanish, and enteritis developeitself, which passed rapidly into gangrene, and destroyed the patients.”

In the Times newspaper of the 26th April, 1836, there is the report ofa coroner’s inquest on the body of a Mrs. Corbyn, who was destroyed byswallowing 20 grains of calomel, she having previously taken a moderatedose without its exciting what she considered a sufficient effect; and inthe India Journal of Medical Science {Lond. Med. Gaz. xviii. 484) is acase of a lad, aged 14, a native of Nepal , in whom six grains of calomelapparently produced inflammation and ulceration of the mouth, enor-mous swelling of the face, mercurial foetor of the breath, mortification,and death. There was no ptyalism.

In Pierer’s Annalen for April 1827 (quoted by Wibrner, op. cit. 72),is the case of a lady, who by mistake swallowed fourteen drachms ofcalomel at once. Acute pains in the abdomen came on, accompanied byfrequent vomiting and purging. These symptoms were allayed byoleaginous demulcents ; but on the second day salivation and ulcerationof the mouth took place. In three weeks, however, she was perfectlyrecovered. Other violent effects are noticed by Wibmer, Gmelin, andothers ; but the instances adduced are sufficient to show that dangerous andeven fatal effects may result from large doses, and therefore that Teicli-meyer, Buchner, and others, are justified in ranking it among poisons.

Of late years, however, immense quantities of calomel have beenadministered medicinally, without giving rise to any symptoms of irritantpoisoning,—nay, apparently with the opposite effect; for we have theconcurrent testimony of many practitioners, that in yellow fever, cholera,and other dangerous diseases, calomel, in doses of a scruple and upwards,allays vomiting and purging; and on this account has been denominateda sedative. So that while in small doses (as from two to five grains)calomel is almost universally admitted to be an irritant to the bowels, itis asserted that larger ones are actually sedative. These statementsappear to me to be almost inconsistent, and yet they are fair deductionsfrom the experience of numerous intelligent practitioners. We must,therefore, endeavour to accumulate more facts, in order to illustrate theeffects of calomel, and for the present confess we have very imperfectinformation respecting the nature of its action.

In a case published by Mr. Roberts in the London Medical Gazette(xxii. 611), an ounce of calomel was swallowed by mistake, and retainedon the stomach for two hours before the error was discovered. The onlyeffects were slight nausea and faintness. Subsequently, emetics, lime-water, and purgatives, were administered ; calomel was vomited up,and the day but one afterwards the patient was quite well. Neithersalivation nor the slightest affection of the gums occurred.

The largest quantity of calomel given as a medicinal agent, at one dose,is, I believe, three drachms ; “ and it was followed,” says Dr. Christison (Treatise on Poisons ), from whom I quote the case, which occurred inAmerica , “ by only one copious evacuation, and that not till after the use