404 DR. SEARLE ON THE USE AND OPERATION OF CALOMEL. 
The endeavour to alleviate human suffering under one of the 
most trying of all situations, the knife of the surgeon, is highly 
praiseworthy, and the public must feel deeply indebted to those 
medical gentlemen who have devoted their time and talents in the 
attempt to achieve so desirable an end. It becomes us, however, 
to ascertain, as far as we are able, whether the means employed 
are compatible with the health and lives of those about to undergo 
operations. 
Pain during operations is, in the majority of cases, even desir- 
able ; its prevention or annihilation is, for the most part, hazardous 
to the patient. In the lying-in chamber nothing is more true than 
this : pain is the mother’s safety, its absence her destruction. Yet 
are there those bold enough to administer the vapour of ether even 
at this critical juncture, forgetting it has been ordered that “in 
sorrow shall she bring forth.” 
I have the honour to be, Sir, 
Your obedient, humble servant, 
James H. Pickford, M.D. 
1, Cavendish-place, Brighton, 
29th May, 1847. 
*** Our thanks for this. 
DR. SEARLE ON THE USE AND OPERATION OF 
CALOMEL. 
[From “ The Medical Times.”] 
" WHATEVER be the preparation of mercury administered, the 
condition in which it is received into the system from the stomach 
I believe to be that of a chloride , seeing that it must be first sub- 
jected to the influence of the hydrochloric acid of the stomach’s 
secretion, and dissolved, before it can be received into the circu- 
lation. Hence it is, in my opinion, that calomel (the chloride of 
mercury) is so much more certain and determinate in its effects, 
and therefore so superior as a remedy to all and every other pre- 
paration of mercury we possess.” 
What follows is an extract from Dr. Searle’s work on “ The 
Philosophy of Life, Health, and Disease.” 
“ The operation of all remedies received into the stomach I be- 
lieve to be in admixture with the blood, after their absorption 
from the stomach ; experiments recently made having established 
this in my mind beyond question. The stomach, nevertheless, is 
