[913] The deaths are registered under the term “Mercury,” but the majority are poisonings by “Corrosive Sublimate.”
The effects of the different compounds of mercury may be divided into two groups, viz., (1) Those caused by the finely divided metal and the non-corrosive compounds; (2) the effects caused by the corrosive compounds.
§ 836. (1) Effects of Mercurial Vapour, and of the Non-Corrosive Compounds of Mercury.
(a) Vegetable Life.—Priestly and Boussingault have shown that plants under a glass shade in which mercury is exposed in a saucer, first exhibit black spots on the leaves; ultimately, the latter blacken entirely, and the plants die.
(b) Animal Life.—Mercury in the form of vapour is fatal to animal life, but it is only so by repeated and intense application. Eulenberg[914] placed a rabbit under a large glass shade, and for four days exposed it daily for two hours to the volatilisation of 2 grms. of mercury on warm sand; on the sixth and seventh day 1·5 grm. was volatilised. On the fifteenth day there was no apparent change in the aspect of the animal; 5 grms. of mercury were then heated in a retort, and the vapour blown in at intervals of ten minutes. Fourteen days afterwards the gums were reddened and swollen, and the appetite lost; the conjunctivæ were also somewhat inflamed. The following day these symptoms disappeared, and the animal remained well.
[914] Op. cit., p. 728.