[ 5 s '6 ] 
per to make her take fmall dofes of pure quickfilver ; 
and that the mercury might the more eafily be deter- 
min’d to the fkin, the patient was order’d to be con- 
ftantly kept in a warm air, to have the furface of her 
body rubb’d with a flannel, and to continue the ufe 
of the vapour bath. But, by way of preparation for 
this mercurial courfe, flhe was gently purged, and 
blooded a fecond time, that the plenitude being di- 
minifh’d, the mercury might better circulate through 
the finefl; veflels. Here it is to be obferv’d, that the 
furgeon, in this fecond blood-letting, did not meet 
with that refiftance, in piercing the Akin, which he 
had experienced in the firft. The patient, thus pre- 
par’d, began in December, 1752. to take daily fix, 
and afterwards twelve, grains of pure quickfilver, in 
a drachm of caflia, drinking after it half a pint of a 
decod: ion of farfaparilla. In this courfe fhe continu’d 
four months with chearfulnefs, and without any in- 
convenience ; and within two months from the be- 
ginning of it there appear’d a fomewhat vifcid fweat, 
and the fkin grew more flexible, and yielding. About 
the end of March, 1 7 5^3 . fire had an efiiorelcence 
over all her fkin, which, by degrees, became puflular, 
and was very troublefome by its heat and itching. 
The ufe of mercury was then difcontinu’d, and fhe 
took no medicine but half a pint of an infufion of 
farfaparilla in the morning, and an emulfion of me- 
lon and poppy-feeds in the evening. Then the heat 
and itching abated, and the puftules fuppurated. 
Signor Cruiio fays, that he had the plealure to fee 
many fmall globules or particles of mercury feparated 
in the ripe puftules. This is fomething fo unufual 
and furprifing, that we fhall fcarce be inclined to give 
our. 
