SALIVATION, or PTYAL1S.)/, is a superabundant secretion of saliva. This sometimes occurs as an idiopathic disease, originating without any evident cruse. Dr. Chriatison (` Treatise on Poisons ') has collected several such outs, in some of which the quantity of saliva discharged amounted to thence or more pints daily. Irritation of the salivary glands, or accompanied with profuse secretion, is also an occa atonal attendant on common inflammations of the throat and mouth, and on those that accompany eruptive dins:axes, especially small-pox. But far more frequently salivatiou is the effect of medicines or poisons Some preparations of gold, copper, antimony, and iodine, cretin oil, digitalis, and even opium, are apt to produce it.; and it is almost a constant effect of the long-continued or administration of mercury.
The quantity of mercury required to produce 'salivation varies greatly in different persons. In some, two or three grains of calomel are sufficient ; hut by other persons such large quautitiess may be taken with impunity, that they appear insusceptible of its action. No general rule, therefore, respecting the quantity of mercury that may be safely given to any one can be made ; but in no cast can there be safety without caution and careful watching of the effecta produced by it.
Salivation from the use of mercury is distinguished from that which arises from other causes by its being preceded by a peculiar brassy taste in the mouth, factor of the breath, and tenderness, redness, and sponginess of the gums. These are soon followed by the increased
flow of saliva, and if mercury be still taken, or if the quantity already taken was very large, they increase ; the whole mouth, tongue, face, and throat become swollen and tender, and ulcers and sloughs quickly form on the mucous membrane. In extreme cases, the. mouth and cheeks and throat become extensively gangrenous, the teeth fall out, the gums swell up 3..4 they do in scurvy, the jaws are affected with necrosis, and by the spreading of the disease to important parts it may prove fatal; or the patieut may die exhausted by the profuse discharge of saliva, or by the peculiar nervous and other constitutional dis turbances that often accompany the poisonous influence of mercury. rMEROUltY.] The best treatment of mercurial salivation is exposure to cool pure air, a nutritious diet, and mild purgatives. Gargles of chlorinated or lime are useful in correcting the fitter of the breath; and honey, or the Mel Boracis, may be applied to the smaller ulcers in the mouth. Tho permanganates of soda and potash may also be employed with advantage as gargles and lotions. The more extensive ulcerations and the gangrene can be treated only by malutaining the patient's strength by tonics and stimulants, and by the usual local applications to such disoises. The idiopathic kinds of salivation usually require ouly cool air and gently reducing measures.