1821.] Origin of the Name of Calomel. 429 



Contemporary with Turquet were Du Chesne and De Riviere, 

 and in compliment to the former, we meet with a composition 

 called after his name ; Turquet, therefore, tells us, that the 

 " Pilul. Quercitani constabat ex 5J vel 5ss coch. minoris et gr. 

 xij. mere, calomelan." This, moreover, was the celebrated pan- 

 chymagogus Quercitani ; and the mercurius dulcis mixed with 

 scammony, noted by Mr. Gray in his communication of Dec- 

 last, as spoken of by Riviere, is, in like manner, the Calomelanos 

 Turqneti, given in his Observationes, and not in the Praxis ; and 

 also in the Epistola apud Hildanum of Doringius, noticed by 

 Bonet, and so called after Sir Theodore. To prove that mercu- 

 rius dulcis and calomel were one and the same preparation, I quote 

 from the Syntagma, p. 287, de Hydrope, a sentence of a case 

 " datum Chelsej, Junij 26, 1651. Elaterium commode et fseliei- 

 ter cum mere, dulci jungitur ; viz. ejus gr. ss vel ad summam 

 gr. j cum. gr. xij. xv. vel xx mere. dulc. calomelan." Of the 

 origin of the word various solutions have been offered. Quincy 

 thinks the mercurius dulcis was called calomel after the subli- 

 mation had been frequently repeated ; and so says the London 

 Pharmacopoeia for 1720. Gmelin's notion, from /xcXi, honey, 

 alluded to by Mr. Gray, might do, as in apomel, hydromel, and 

 oxymel, but, unfortunately, we have calomehuiicus sublimatus- 

 dulcis, a repetition by no means necessary. 



Dr. James gives Katoj, good, and jajAaj, black, from its virtues 

 and colour, and says, that " it formerly meant mercury well 

 pounded with sulphur, and reduced to a black substance, but 

 now calomel, in the common acceptation, means the mercurius 

 dulcis six times sublimed." Dr. James is followed in this idea 

 by Dr. Alston, Dr. Hooper, and many others. 



The application of the name, as here specified, is, I think, 

 sufficiently controverted by the fact, before observed, that the 

 mercurius niger, or Bethiops, was an invention of Turquet's, and 

 is not mentioned until after the use of the word calomel had 

 become frequent. They are also to be found in the same pages 

 in different prescriptions, and could not be one preparation. 



It is true, however, that from the trituration of the oxynluriate 

 with the current mercury, a dark cineritious tint is produced, 

 by which, before the sublimation, the latter part of the name 

 might in some measure be accounted for; but when the complete 

 process for producing the submuriate is gone through, that is,' 

 removed, the powder assumes a most beautiful white. Was 

 the word, therefore, indicated by the different appearances of the 

 two stages of preparation'.' and would the use of xx*o; and piXag. 

 so applied be a sufficient explanation of the term? 1 should con- 

 ceive it would not. As a last resource then, what would be 

 thought of the suggestion that the enigma might possibly be 

 solved by x«*o?, good, or excellent, and pjAr,?, a searcher, from 

 y-r/.r'w, to search. 



1 observe Turquet himself never uses the word celomelanos, as 



