MEDICAL REGISTRATION BILL. 
343 
* * * But it not only acts in preventing these deposits : — 
mercury appears to possess the additional power of causing the 
speedier absorption of abnormal products which have been thrown 
out ; and the results that we observe in practice warrant us to 
come to this conclusion. How often does the physician observe 
the beneficial effects of this drug in pneumonia, when the lung 
has become solid, by the effusion of fibrine in its parenchymatous 
structure ] Under the influence of mercury, the lung, which has 
hitherto been almost impervious to air, gradually returns to its 
healthy function : day by day air enters it more readily, the mor- 
bid sounds are lost, and freedom of breathing is restored. And hbw 
does this happen, except by re-absorption of those inflammatory 
products which have spoiled for a time the texture and function 
of the lung 1 How often does a surgeon see gradual restoration 
of a joint take place, when it has been crippled by inflammation 
and its consequences, under a mild and beneficial course of 
mercury ] 
* * * The chief power mercury possesses is stopping that 
action — inflammation — which leads to effusion, and not curing that 
effusion which has once taken place. The idea that mercury acts 
chiefly by promoting absorption, has led to the practice of not 
giving it directly in inflammatory diseases. This appears to me 
to be in a considerable degree faulty and mischievous, as the time 
is allowed to go by when the remedy may produce its best result. 
* * * There is another fact which, I think, will go far to 
prove that mercury subdues inflammation by changing the condi- 
tion of the blood — viz., that its beneficial effects are noticed 
mostly in those forms of inflammation where there is a tendency 
to a deposit of healthy lymph, and not pus or imperfect lymph ; 
and this deposit is found to take place in inflammation of the solid 
organs of the body and the great serous membranes, excited by 
common causes, such as wounds, or cold. 
PARLIAMENTARY PROSPECTS OF THE MEDICAL 
REGISTRATION BILL. 
Mr. WAKLEY presented twenty petitions in favour of this bill 
from physicians, surgeons, and general practitioners in London, 
Wisbeach, Bradford, Accrington, and other places. The honourable 
member said, that the right honourable baronet (Sir George Grey), 
who had consented last session to aid him in passing a medical 
registration bill, had privately intimated to him that he had re- 
