Excessive sweating is sometimes caused by the mercurials, and is accused of having produced dangerous exhaustion.

As to the various chronic skin diseases, the pains in the bones with nodes, the chronic enlargement of the lymphatic glands, the ulcers like those of syphilis in the fauces and upon the surface of the body, the iritis, etc., etc., which have been ascribed to mercury, I believe that it is wholly guiltless of all of them.

Treatment of Excessive Mercurialism. For the sore-mouth, weak astringent washes may be used, as infusion of green tea, galls, sage, or cinchona, water acidulated with sulphuric acid, or solution of acetate of lead, sulphate of zinc, sulphate of copper, or alum. I have usually employed acetate of lead, in the proportion of two or three grains to the fluidounce of water; though it has the disadvantage of temporarily blackening the tongue and teeth, by forming sulphuret of lead. Solution or honey of borax, and tar-water, or smearing the inflamed parts with tar itself, have been recommended. Velpeau directs his patients to rub a little powdered alum on their gums, three or four times a day. Dr. Watson has found nothing better, for correcting the excessive flow of saliva, than a mouth-wash composed of one part of brandy to four or five of water. Tincture of iodine, or the compound tincture diluted with water, is said to have proved very efficacious. To correct the offensive odour, solutions of creasote, chloride of soda, or chloride of lime in water may be used; one part of either of these substances being dissolved in 100 parts of water. Charcoal, in fine powder, has been employed for the same purpose. When there are painful or obstinate ulcers, they may be touched with a strong solution of nitrate of silver.

The mercurial must of course be suspended on the occurrence of unpleasant symptoms. Exposure to cold and dampness should be avoided, and the patient should wear flannel next his skin. it is said that the sudden checking of profuse salivation by a cold damp air has caused internal pains, irritation of stomach, and even convulsions. To relieve the local pains and restlessness, opium may often be given advantageously by the mouth. if the pain and swelling of the parotids are considerable, leeches may be employed with relief, and even blisters may be applied in obstinate cases. Should the tongue be much swollen, leeches should be applied under the chin. The saline laxatives may also be given, and, if there is fever with a hot skin, the neutral mixture or effervescing draught. Certain medicines, taken internally, have been much praised as having peculiar efficiency in arresting the mercurial influence. Among the substances recommended for this purpose are tartar emetic, acetate of lead, nitre, iodine, sulphur, and chlorate of potassa. The last-mentioned salt has been used with great supposed advantage by MM. Herpin and Blache. They give from thirty grains to a drachm in the course of the day, and cure their patients in from four to six days. {Bull. de Thérap., xlviii. 26 and 120.) I tried it thoroughly in one case; but finding no advantage whatever to accrue from the medicine, have not since employed it; others, however, have had a more satisfactory experience. in prostration, with gangrene or necrosis, it will be necessary to have recourse to quinia, opium, the fermented liquors, and nutritious food. in anemic cases, the chalybeates should be employed.

Should the poisonous action described by Pearson be induced, the patient should be removed into a pure air, duly stimulated, and nourished with milk, or other easily digested and nutritious food.

For the nervous disorders resulting from the inhalation of the vapours of mercury, and all other cases of chronic poisoning from the medicine, iodide of potassium, as recommended by M. Melsens, would probably be the best remedy, in conjunction with tonics. From five to ten grains or more may be given three times a day. in these cases, it is probable that the metal is fixed in the cerebral or nervous tissue, from which there may be good hope that the iodide will disengage it. if, upon reentering the circulation, it should produce salivation, this would soon cease with the discharge of the metal by the emunctories, and no harm would result.

For the affection of the skin (eczema mercuriale), the best treatment consists of demulcent lotions, emollient baths, and, in case of fever, the saline laxatives and refrigerant diaphoretics.

Excessive sweating must be combated by sulphate of quinia and the mineral acids.

2. Mode Of Operation

That mercury is absorbed is proved by the following facts. When rubbed upon the skin it in part disappears. After administration, it has been detected by chemical tests in the blood, saliva, perspiration, bile, and urine, and is said to have been found in the metallic state in the brain, bones, cellular tissue, lungs, etc. infants affected with syphilis are asserted to be treated effectually by the administration of mercurials to the nurse. After the use of sulphur for some time, the exhibition of mercury has been followed by blackening of the skin; from which it is inferrible that both substances were thrown out of the circulation with the cutaneous transpiration, and combined after elimination to form the 'black sulphuret of mercury. Gold, worn about the person of individuals under the influence of mercury, is said to become whitened by amalgamating with that metal escaping with the perspiration. Should all these statements not be admitted as sufficiently authentic, enough will still remain, of which there can be no reasonable doubt, to establish the fact of the absorption of the metal. it is not necessary to suppose that it enters the blood in an uncombined state. On the contrary, it may be considered as almost certain that, when presented in a finely divided state, either incorporated with other substances, or in the form of vapour, to any absorbing surface, whether that of the alimentary mucous membrane, the pulmonary air-cells, or the skin, it meets before absorption, or in the act of being absorbed, with substances which, by combining with it, render it soluble in the blood. M. Mialhe has shown that metallic mercury, in contact with the air and the solution of an alkaline chloride, is partially converted into the soluble bichloride of mercury, or corrosive sublimate, and may in this, if in no other mode, find access into the circulation. The simple fact that its effects upon the system are obtained, no matter to what surface capable of absorption it may be applied, is alone a sufficient proof that it operates through this agency.