Alexander Philip Wilson Philip

“ If we except worm cases, in which mercury probably acts on the worms themselves, the various diseases in which mercury is useful, may perhaps be reduced to the two heads of inflammation and glandular obstruction. I believe there is nothing more erroneous than the opinion, that mercury will occasionally succeed in almost all diseases. ”

“ But though a frog be rendered insensible by application of spirit of wine to its feet, the heart nevertheless continues to act, and its force is even increased by subsequent application of spirit of wine to the brain or spinal marrow. ”

“ Strong exercises, I mean such as induce any degree of sensible perspiration, and all kinds of fatigue, are hurtful.
All indigestible and irritating articles of food should be avoided by those under the influence of mercury, both because it is proper, under the use of all medicines [20] which promote the excretions, to avoid whatever debilitates, and because every thing that irritates the bowels tends to solicit a more copious secretion from them, and thus to divert the mercury from the channel, to which it is our aim to direct it. ”

“ The author's ultimate object is to ascertain the manner in which certain poisons act in destroying life; but for this purpose he found it necessary previously to determine how far the powers of the nervous and sanguiferous systems depend on each other; and though it be generally allowed that the powers of the nervous system cannot continue long after the cessation of the circulation of the blood, the converse is not so generally admitted; since there are persons who maintain that the nervous power may be wholly destroyed without impairing the vigour of the heart. ”

“ When it is necessary to induce salivation, the patient should remain at home. The inconvenience, indeed, of going out is sufficient to prevent it. Under even the gentlest course of mercury, he should remain at home in damp cold weather, and after sun-set. With these exceptions, he should be as much in the open air as his strength will permit. It [19] is not exposure to a cool, or even a cold air, that checks perspiration. In a dry cold air, with a due degree of exercise, the insensible perspiration is perhaps freer than under any other circumstances. ”

“ Like all other medicines which increase the secretion by the skin, the use of mercury tends to debilitate, and render the body more susceptible of cold. When mercury does not encrease any other excretion, the debility it occasions seems to be proportioned to the degree in which it promotes perspiration; and medicines which promote perspiration in a greater degree produce more sudden debility. ”

“ There are some cases where powerful means are required to rouse the bowels to action, or a strong stimulus applied to their exhaling vessels is beneficial; and mercury is sometimes successfully employed internally for the removal of worms, but in ordinary cases we can surely with equal advantage use a less irritating medicine.
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When mercury is not employed as an aperient, but for the purpose of impregnating the system, what advantage is there in giving it by the mouth. It seldom happens that we cannot give as much as we wish by the skin. ”

“ All that is necessary with respect to temperature is, that it shall not be so low that the quantity of exercise, which the patient can take without inconvenience, shall not be sufficient to keep up a proper degree of heat. ”

“ When the mercury instead of falling on the glands of the mouth and fauces, is thrown on the bowels in consequence of taking cold, it is more in our power to regulate and restrain the discharge. For the most part this affection of the bowels is a mere diarrhœa. The griping pains which sometimes attend it seem to arise from the copious secretion from the intestines washing off the mucus which is the natural defence against the irritation of their contents. When this affection is allowed to continue, and no care is taken to defend the bowels, dysenteric symptoms sometimes shew themselves ”

“ By applying strong stimuli, and repeating them, to the spinal marrow of a frog, the muscles were made to contract till their irritability was exhausted. In a second frog the nerves supplying the muscles of one leg were divided, and the irritability of its muscles was exhausted by the application of salt to the muscles themselves ”

“ Such is the tendency of mercury to promote the secretion by the skin, that it often runs off in this way almost as fast as it is received into the system, particularly on its first being used; so that it is sometimes difficult to make a sufficient quantity be retained to produce its desired effect. ”

“ Some of the good effects of mercury seem, in a great measure, to arise from this action of [7] it, particularly its tendency to counteract the inflammatory disposition and to relieve actual inflammation.
This tendency of mercury readily accounts for the bad effects of taking cold under its influence. It is easy to conceive that the bad effects of checking perspiration will be most felt when, to use a common expression, the pores are most open, that is, when the secretion by the skin is most copious ”

“ It is unnecessary to notice a variety of groundless opinions, respecting the effects of mercury, which prevail among the vulgar, that it remains for ever in the system, causes a rottenness of the bones, &c. These are similar to the prejudices which prevailed respecting the bark for a long time after its introduction into practice, that it was formed into masses in the stomach and bowels, from which it could never be expelled ”

“ In certain formidable cases which, we have reason to believe, if left to themselves would prove fatal, and in which more gentle means have failed, it is proper to induce salivation. But may not a similar objection be brought against the use of most other medicines? There are few whose operation, is not attended with some inconvenience. ”

“ If a poisonous substance is received into the stomach, [8] the action of vomiting is frequently excited, or if it passes into the bowels, nature still endeavours to carry it off by an increase of the peculiar motion of the intestines, and of the secretion from their surface ”

“ Mercury may, to a certain degree, be diverted from the kidneys by the use of certain astringent medicines. Those which direct it to the skin, by increasing the action of this organ, will divert it from the kidneys ”