In whatever way mercury acts, it is admitted to be the only remedy which we can depend on in this climate. Various are the opinions respecting the preparation to be chosen, the forms of administration, and the conduct of the plan. Every practitioner has his predilections and his prejudices respecting particular preparations; but we are coming back to the earliest views, and it is now generally agreed that the mercurial pill, and the friction with mercurial ointment, are most commonly successful. Of the other internal mercurials, perhaps calomel is equally useful with any other; and though we have, for a long time, employed mercurius calcinatus, we know not that it is superior in efficacy; but to this part of the subject we must return.

In the earlier periods, mercury was employed so freely, or rather so rashly, that the most fatal consequences often ensued. The loss of the teeth and the injury of the sight were among the slightest of these; and sometimes a fatal apoplexy has supervened, which yet occasionally happens, though the event is peculiarly rare. Terrified by these events, practitioners began to think that mercury in very large doses was unnecessary; and the quacks at last contended that their boasted nostrums contained none. In their preparations, indeed, the most active mercurials are employed, and they depend on the colour and the density of their medicine to elude the detection of the mineral; but modern chemistry has too many resources to be so easily baffled, as our remarks in the article Arge.ntum vivum will evince; to which we could add some experiments of our own. Others, melioris notae, assert, that they can cure the disease without salivation; and practitioners of credit do not often require confinement. Yet, in such cases, relapses we have found not uncommon; and though confinement may be sometimes dispensed with in warm weather, it will be more safe to enjoin it. The severity of the old process is greatly mitigated since the days of Pott, and the last author of that school who countenances it is, we believe, Mr. Howard. Yet when the disease has long continued, where the bones are greatly affected, and every part of the system seems to be contaminated, this severity should still be employed. Without it, in such cases, there is no safety. In more recent complaints, a milder course may be trusted; and a spitting, not exceeding a pint in a day, continued for about three weeks, or a month, will often effectually cure. It must, however, be remembered, that the longer the disease has continued, the more intimately it appears to have penetrated, the more active must be the salivation, and the longer should be its duration. In general, gargles, and any applications, except the mildest, should be avoided; for though the topical complaints will be sooner relieved, these should be left as indices to enable us to judge of the state of the constitution. In cases where discovery is dreaded from these local affections, this precaution may be disregarded.

It has been a question, whether, when other discharges are increased, salivation is necessary. When the cutaneous evacuation, or the urine, is evidently and copiously increased in quantity, it is highly pro-. bable that the disease will be equally removed. Yet no prudent practitioner will wholly depend on these discharges. We know only that mercury is accumulated in the system by its affecting the mouth; and unless accumulated, the disease will not be cured. Yet many persons no quantity of mercury will salivate, and to increase the dose beyond due bounds may be dangerous, as a most profuse and violent spitting sometimes attacks at once. In such instances, we have found it advantageous to employ the assistant medicines, as the mezereon, etc.; and to watch the progress of the local complaints. When these have yielded, and the constitution in general is amended, the omission of mercury may for a time be allowed, and it may at a future period be commenced with more success. When we have perceived from these indices that little has been gained, rubbing calomel on the gums, a practice recommended, we believe, first by Mr. Cline, has succeeded, though troublesome ulcers in the mouth have sometimes followed.

When mercury has conquered the general disease, the local ones often continue troublesome. The sores in the throat are, indeed, frequently the effect of the remedy, and may be distinguished from true venereal sores by their being less deep and foul, with edges less ragged, or insensibly lost in the ephelion. These may be healed by discontinuing the medicine, and using gently astringent gargles. The nocturnal pains, the gummata, tophi et nodi, and the venereal excrescences, often continue after the constitution is wholly cleared. The mezereon will relieve in many instances the pains; and the warts must be treated, like any others, with caustics, or the knife. The gymmata we have already described, and need only add in this place, that if the mezereon, with the topical application of mercurial ointment, does not succeed in reducing them, they will at least be no longer painful; but, should the patient still wish to be effectually cured, the surgeon may make an incision on the bone, and cut out the tumefied part, bringing on a suppuration to complete the cure. The process is, however, painful and troublesome; nor is it advisable on the head, since the node often arises in the diploe of the scull, and each lamella is equally affected.

The doses of mercury must be managed with caution, and very slight ones first employed. If we give the mercury oxygenated by triture, about four grains of the blue pill of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia, which contains a grain of mercury, will be sufficient, if repeated three times a day. If calomel or mercurius calcinatus is employed, a grain night and morning at first, or two grains at night, guarded with a grain of opium, lest it should irritate the bowels, will be a proper dose. If the ointment is preferred, half a drachm of the strong mercurial ointment may be rubbed in night and morning. In about a week or ten days, by either plan, the mouth will be slightly sore, and the repetition may be regulated by its degree, or by the violence or duration of the complaint. In many cases the bowels will be so much affected by the mercurial, that no doses of opium will check the pain or diarrhoea: in many the salivation comes on so rapidly that the effects on the disease cannot be depended on. Sometimes opium, sometimes the haematoxylon, the catechu, the kino, the oak bark, or tormentil, will check the discharge on the bowels; and the Dover's powder, pulvis ipecacuanhae compositus, with a warm regimen, and a flannel shirt, prevent its affecting too soon the mouth.