428 Mr. Whatton on the [Dec. 



turn hydrargyri, and the sublimatum ; Sennert is the first who 

 notices the mercurius dulcis, and its method of preparation ; and 

 none, prior to Quincy in 1720, speaks of calomel, with the 

 exception of Turquet, De Riviere, and Bonet. 



Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayenne, knight, and Baron of 

 Aubonne, was a Frenchman, and born in the year 1572. He 

 took the decree of Bachelor of Medicine at Montpelier in 1596, 

 and the Doctorate in 1597. He was a scholar and chemist of 

 the first eminence, and Physician to the King, of France; and 

 in 1616 was invited to England by the British Ambassador, 

 where he successively became first Physician, by patent, to 

 James I. and Charles, and died very rich, and with a high repu- 

 tation, at Chelsea, in 1655. He wrote Praxeos Mayennise in 

 Morbis Internis Syntagma, and the Opera Medica, both which 

 were published after his death, the one in 1690, and the other 

 by Dr. Browne in 1703. 



Sir Theodore Turquet is the earliest author to whom 1 have 

 been able to trace any mention of calomel, and that not as a 

 new preparation, but merely as a name of his own choosing, 

 expressive of the qualities of the mercurius dulcis of Sennert. 



As Turquet was a physician in most extensive practice, an 

 excellent and experimental chemist, and a man of high rank in 

 the service of the King, and every where enjoying the greatest 

 popularity, it is not improbable that to him will attach the merit, 

 if anv exist, of adopting the curious designation in question. At 

 the end of his lastworkis given an ample Pharmacopoeia, includ- 

 ing a lar»e number of chemical preparations of different kinds 

 oHus own invention, among which stand the mercurius niger, or 

 tethiops mineralis, and the clyssus mercurii, very similar to the 

 mercurius dulcis, except that it was only three times sublimed, 

 and afterwards well washed in cinnamon or rose water. This 

 form of preparation had its name from the Greek uhu^u, to wash. 



In the course of his works, Sir Theodore makes use of the 

 terms pulvis calomelas, $ calomelanicus, mercurius calomela- 

 nicus, calomelanicus sublimatus dulcis, and calomelanicus optim. 

 prreparat. indifferently, by all which he means to express himself 

 as speaking of the submurias hydrargyri. At p. 20, lib. 2, he 

 writes, as if feeling his way in the use of a new formula, " D. 

 Brochant sumpsit mercur. calomelanic. et Gutta>. a3ss; nauseam 

 levem passus est citra vomitum, dejecit duodecies, et biliosa ; " 

 and some time after we have the doses, accompanied by this 

 observation, " mihi notse et millessima experientia. faslicissime 

 comprobatcfi mercurii praeparationes sunt, aquila rubra, pulvis 

 calomelas, mercurius lunaris, prcecipitatum album, et (quod 

 meumestinventum) clyssus metallorum. Horum doses sequuntur : 

 aquila rubra datur per se a gr. xij ad gr. xx. c. theriaca; calo- 

 melanici sublimati dulcis a 9j ad $ss ; mercurij lunaris gr. vj. 

 and gr. viij, vulgaris dosis gr. vj ; clyssj (sive mercurij universa- 

 lis) 3j ad Jss. 



