C. WITHEHSTINE, Philadelphia.
MERCURY.—.1Iercury, hydrargyrum, quic.--s.lver, is a lustrous, -r--vhite metal liquid which, though cras:rnally fot•nd in its pure state, is •,- ally obtained from native chloride or sulphide. It is also found in amalgama tion with silver. The sulphide, called native cinnabar, is mainly obtained in the mines of Almaden, Spain, and of New Almaden, near San Jose, California. The various processes through which it is isolated are all based upon distillation.
Mercury is devoid of odor or taste. At the usual temperature of temperate countries it occurs as a heavy fluid, but at 3S.SS° below zero F. it becomes solid, though quite malleable. When it is ex posed to high heat (675.05° F.) it vola tilizes into a colorless vapor. It is solu ble in nitric acid and boiling sulphuric acid.
Physiological Action.—BLoon.—Wil bouchewitch showed that large doses of mercury caused reduction of the red blood-corpuscles and that small doses prevented their destruction. When, how ever, small doses were administered dur ing too prolonged a period, anmmia was again ob.served. E. L. Keyes, in a series of experiments, further demonstrated that small doses of mercury not only arrested the destruction of corpuscles due to syphilis, but that they actually caused an increase which steadily pro gressed until a normal proportion was at tained, as long as the small doses were given. Large doses he found to exert an opposite influence, being distinctly de bilitating. Robin, acting on these con clusions, found that in syphilitic or non syphilitic subjects, and whatever way it was administered, mercury always caused an increase of blood-corpuscles provided an intercurrent gastric disorder were not present or the untoward effects of mur cury — salivation, etc.— were not pro duced. The onset of these disorders marked the beginning of hypoglobulia —decrease in the number of corpuscles.
Observations in regard to the amount of limmoglobin present in syphilis in re lation to the benefit derived from mer curial treatment. Three incontestable facts are (1) that if a syphilitic patient has no treatment, the quantity of 11Tmo globin in the blood will diminish from time to time; (2) that if mercury be given to animals or persons not suffer ing from syphilis, the amount of hmno globin will be diminished in a few days; (3) that if a syphilitic person who shows that the amount of Memoglobin is di minishing be put on a mercurial treat ment, an increase in the amount of haemo globin can be determined at once, and very markedly in the course of seven or eight days. From these facts we have a
valuable indication as to just when our mercury ceases to do good, and therefore should be stopped. Semmola (La Presse Med., Sept. 15, '59).
The comparative influence of mercury upon the blood was recently studied by Kuperwasser (Arch. des Sci. Biol. de St. Petersburg, vol. vi, '9S). He found that white corpuscles (which all arise from one and the same element,—namely: the small mononucleated lymphocyte) being classified into (1) young, (2) mature, and (3) old, leneocytes, the blood of healthy subjects was modified by mercury in that the proportion of young leucocytes pres ent is considerably increased and that of the old considerably diminished. The blood of syphilitics reacts to mercury by a considerable diminution in the propor tion of young and a corresponding in crease in that of old leucocytes. This reaction is independent of the stage of the disease, and takes place whether there are at the time syphilitic mani festations or not, and also whether the patient has or has not previously been subjected to specific treatment of mer ctiry and iodides. Those who have un dergone treatment by mercury within four months of applying the blood-test form the only exception to this rule. In such eases the reaction of syphilitic is re placed by that of healthy blood, possibly because the patient still retains a con siderable quantity of mercury, or because under its influence the disease has be come so attenuated that the blood gives a normal reaction.