Absorption. That this process is promoted by the medicine, is inferrible from the obvious loss of flesh which takes place during the existence of mercurialism, amounting not unfrequently to great emaciation. it is probable that the mercury acts, not so much as a direct stimulant to the absorbents, as by promoting that molecular change or disintegration of structure, which always occurs in the performance of the various functions, even that of nutrition, and thus throwing a greater amount than in health of the detritus of the tissues into the lymphatics and veins. it is not improbable that much of its alterative action in disease, is owing to the change which it thus produces in the intimate structure of the organs.

Effects on the Digestive Organs. These are always disturbed in full mercurialism. The diminution or loss of appetite is among its most common accompaniments. Even independently of the local irritant impression on the alimentary mucous membrane, produced by the more acrid preparations of the metal, there is a disposition to looseness of the bowels, and not unfrequently a purgative effect, resulting in chief from the increased production of bile, but probably in part also from the augmented mucous and pancreatic secretion.

Effects on the Nervous System. The most prominent nervous phenomenon of mercurialization is an increased susceptibility to impressions; slight causes producing a disturbance of the mental equanimity, and unpleasant influences of all kinds having more than their ordinary effect. A fretful, peevish state of mind, and irritable condition of temper are not uncommon; and restlessness, wakefulness, and general uneasiness are frequently added to the other sufferings. Much of this may be owing to the local affection of the mouth; but there is reason to think that the nervous centres are more or less disturbed by the direct contact of the medicine, as it is carried to them with the blood. in very severe cases of mercurialism, tremors and convulsive movements are sometimes produced. When mercury is received into the system by inhalation, it is said to be peculiarly apt to cause derangement of the nervous functions.

* From experiments by Dr. Edward R. Harvey on the influence of mercury on the urine, it results that, in a young dog under the action of that substance, no change is produced, so long as the animal retains its health, in the quantity of the urine or of the urea contained in it; this being sometimes a little more, and sometimes a little less than before the action of the mercury; but that the phosphates and the entire ash, as far as determined by these experiments, are always remarkably diminished. Hence the effect of mercury is, without otherwise materially altering the urine, decidedly to lessen the quantity of the salts. (B. and F. Medico-chir. Rev., April, 1862, p. 520.) This effect is probably ascribable, in part at least, to the increased elimination of saline matter with the saliva, bile, and perhaps the pancreatic secretion. [Note to the third edition.)

Effects on the Blood. it is the almost uniform testimony of writers and observers that one of the effects of mercury is to lower the quality of the blood. The particular changes produced in this fluid will be noticed under another division of the subject; but it is probably owing to its deterioration that the patient, suffering under the continued and considerable influence of the medicine, is apt to become pale, with a puffy face, and edematous extremities, and sometimes a disposition to hemorrhage; though I do not remember to have noticed the last-mentioned result in any case that I have witnessed, except as an attendant upon a severe affection of the mouth and fauces.

Convalescence from Mercurialism. From a moderate degree of mercurialism, if the medicine be omitted, the patient begins to recover after an uncertain length of time, and gradually returns to health, with no other effect remaining than perhaps a greater susceptibility, for a time, to the morbid influence of cold, requiring care to guard against undue exposure.

The more violent forms of the affection are generally slow in convalescence; leaving behind them sometimes a tendency to a rapid decay and ultimate loss of the teeth, and, in rare instances, deformity of the face from the loss of portions of the jaw bone or from contracted mouth, adhesions between the tongue and cheek, and difficulty of separating the jaws, in consequence of ulcerated surfaces having united together, or shrunk in the healing process. I have seen few or no cases, in which the health appeared to have undergone permanent and irreparable injury; but, on the contrary, have known very happy changes in the con. stitution to have been effected, and long-continued morbid tendencies, occasionally threatening life itself, to have been to all appearance permanently eradicated.

Difference of Susceptibility. There is in different individuals very great difference of susceptibility to the sialagogue operation of mercury. The smallest doses ordinarily given will sometimes produce unexpectedly violent effects; and there are individuals whom it is impossible to affect by any quantity which it is at all prudent to administer. The most violent and threatening case of mercurial sore-mouth that I have seen, occurred in a young woman to whom I gave eight grains of calomel in the course of three days; and, in the Pennsylvania Hospital, I once had a patient who was profusely salivated, as I was assured by the resident physician, by one-third of a grain of corrosive sublimate in two doses. Dr. Burrows, of Jackson, N. C, in a letter to me dated January, 1844, informed me of a case, in which five-eighths of a grain of calomel had acted powerfully as a sialagogue upon an adult. in those persons whom, from idiosyncrasy, I have found it difficult or impossible to salivate, I have repeatedly observed an unusual aptness to be purged by the medicine; and, in such instances, have ascribed the constitutional insusceptibility to this very circumstance. The medicine, being absorbed into the portal circulation, and distributed through the liver, is, from the extraordinary susceptibility of this organ to be affected by it, thrown off with the bile, which serves as a purgative upon entering the bowels. Whether such individuals would offer an equal insusceptibility to the sialagogue action of the medicine, introduced into the system by inunction or endermically, I have never experimentally ascertained. in others, with a similar constitutional insusceptibility, without any special disposition to be purged by the mercurial, I have noticed frequency of pulse to be induced, without alarming symptoms of any kind. What might have been the ultimate results of perseverance I cannot say, for I have never carried the medicine beyond what I conceived to be safe limits. But it is highly probable that effects on the nervous system would have been produced, similar to those which will be noticed directly as sometimes resulting from the habitual inhalation of the vapour.