54 VETEEINAEY TOXICOLOGY 



doses, or when elimination by purgation does not occur — 

 and non-irritant, and is one of the commonest medicinal 

 forms of mercury. Metallic mercury, which is harm- 

 less in large globules, is absorbed when in the finely 

 divided form, and is thus extensively employed in such 

 preparations as mercury with chalk, and in various mer- 

 curial ointments. Finely divided mercury is also some- 

 times incorporated with oil of tar and mineral oils in 

 mange dressings. The sparingly soluble red iodide or 

 hiniodide also finds application as an ointment. As lotions, 

 suspensions of the black mercuroua and yellow mercuric 

 oxides in lime water are used, and zinc mercuric cyanide 

 is a powerfully antiseptic, non-irritant agent. 



Ammoniated mercury or white 2)reci])itate, formed by acting 

 on mercuric chloride with ammonia, is a non-irritant used 

 as a dressing. 



Absorption and Elimination. — The finely divided metal, 

 as well as the soluble salts, is absorbed through the skin. 

 Thus Frohner* records a case of poisoning by absorption' 

 from blue ointment. 



When finely divided mercury has access to herbage it 

 may be eaten as such, or possibly may be converted into 

 the oxide, as in the case quoted by Lander, t 



In the stomach the soluble salts of mercury come into 

 rapid and intimate contact with the tissues, and thus 

 exercise the powerful corrosive effects due no doubt in 

 part to the acid ion, though chiefly to that of mercury. 

 The mercury albuminates, being readily soluble both in 

 proteins and in sodium chloride, cause the drug to pene- 

 trate deeply into the tissues, and to pass into the circula- 

 tion in the form of albuminate. 



The metal thus becomes distributed throughout the body, 

 and is stored mainly in the kidney and liver. It is elimin- 

 ated from the organs by most of the excretory channels, 

 chiefly through the intestines and kidneys. The elimina- 

 tion is in all cases very slow. For the most part calomel 

 is converted in the intestines into the black sulphide, and 

 * Vet JL, 1907, p. 448. t Ibid., 1906, p. 498. 



