CHAP. IV.
Of the different Mercurial Preparations employed in Medicine.
Metallic substances in general, when employed for the purposes of medicine, have been used in many different forms: But none of them, perhaps, has been exhibited in a greater diversity of preparations than mercury. Some mercurial preparations have never been employed in the cure of lues venerea; and many formerly in use are entirely banished from the present practice in this disease. All these may be considered as unconnected with the subject here treated of. But that the nature of those preparations which are at present most frequently employed, may be more clearly understood, there will be no impropriety in taking a general view of all the preparations of mercury.
The mercurial preparations admitted by the Colleges of London and Edinburgh, contain the most useful and most elegant forms employed in practice, at the time when the last editions of their Pharmacopœias were published. But even at that time they were by no means to be considered as compleat lists. And, since that time, other preparations of utility in practice have been discovered.
A more full view of mercurial preparations than can be obtained from these lists, and, at the same time, some information with regard to the circumstances in which they differ from each other, may be had from a table of mercurials lately published by Dr Saunders of London. In that table, which, with a very few inconsiderable alterations, is the same with one formerly given out by Dr Cullen, when professor of chemistry at Edinburgh, the different mercurial preparations are reduced to general heads, according to the means employed to render them active. From it, the following is almost entirely copied. The names of the different preparations are here printed in Italics, and taken from the London and Edinburgh Dispensatories, from the new Dispensatory, and from the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia Pauperum. To these are added, some mercurials introduced by Boerhaave, Astruc, Keyser, and Plenck. From the letters subjoined to each, it will appear from whence the preparations are taken; and, where an asterisk is prefixed to any one, it denotes, that it is to be considered as perfectly analogous to that immediately preceeding.
A
TABLE
OF
MERCURIAL PREPARATIONS.
I. Mercury rendered active by triture.
a. Without any addition. Tragea Keyserii.
b. With honey. Pilulae mercuriales. E. 1744.
c. With balsam.
Pilulae mercuriales. L.
Unguentum caeruleum fortius et mitius. L.
Emplastrum commune cum mercurio. L.
* Emplastrum mercuriale. E.
Ceratum mercuriale. L.
d. With resin.
Pilulae mercuriales. E.
Pilulae Æthiopicae. E.
e. With gum.
Solutio mercurialis. Plenck.
Pilulae mercuriales. P.
Syrupus mercurialis. P.
f. With suet.
Unguentum mercuriale. E.
g. With absorbent earths.
Mercurius alcalizatus.
h. With sugar. Mercurius saccharatus. E.
i. With sulphur.
Æthiops mineralis. L. E.
Æthiops antimonialis. Ph. Paup. E.
k. With bread.
Pilulae mercuriales.
l. With conserve of roses.
Bolus caeruleus.
II. Mercury calcined by heat.
a. Alone.
Mercurius calcinatus. L.
* Mercurius praecipitatus per se.
b. With gold.
Mercurius praecipitatus solaris. Ast.
III. Mercury sublimed with sulphur.
Cinnabaris factitia. L.
Cinnabaris antimonii.
IV. Mercury rendered saline.
a. By vitriolic acid.
Mercurius emeticus flavus. L.
* Mercurius praecipitatus flavus. E.
* Turpethum minerale. E.
b. By nitrous acid.
Solutio mercurii. E.
Calx mercurii. E.
c. By muriatic acid.
Mercurius sublimatus corrosivus, E. L.
Mer. praecipitatus albus. Boer.
Aqua aluminosa. E.
Aqua phagedænica. E.
Mercurius violaceus diaphoreticus. Ast.
* Flores ammoniaco-mercuriales.
Solutio mercurii per deliquium. Ast.
d. By vegetable acid.
Mercurius tartarizatus.
Pilulae Keyserii.
V. Saline preparations of mercury rendered milder.
A. By abstracting acid.
a. By calcination.
Mercurius corrosivus ruber. L.
* Mercurius calcinatus. E.
* Mercurius praecipitatus ruber. E.
b. By attraction.
a. Of water.
Pulvis principis. N. D.
b. Of alcohol.
Mercurius corallinus. L.
Panacaea mercurii. E. 1744.
c. Of water and alcohol.
Arcanum corallinum. N. D.
Panacaea mercurii rubra.N. D.
d. Of camphire.
Pilulae e turpetho minerali. Ph. Paup. E.
c. By attraction and precipitation.
a. Of fixed alkali.
Mercurius praecipitatus fuscus. E. 1744.
b. Of volatile alkali.
Mercurius praecipitatus. L.
Unguentum e mercurio praecipitato. L.
c. Of volatile alkali and copper.
Mercurius praecipitatus viridis. E.
B. By addition of mercury.
Mercurius sublimatus dulcis. L. E.
* Calomelas.
* Aquila alba.
C. By addition of unguent.
Unguentum citrinum. E.
VI. Saline preparations of mercury rendered acrid, or kept so.
a. By redissolving precipitate.
Mercurius praecipitatus solutus.
b. By addition of acid.
Solutio sublimati cum spiritu salis.
c. By suspending with ammoniacal salt.
Mercurius corrosivus nitrosus.
* Ward’s white drop.
Mercurius corrosivus muriaticus.