442 
EFFECTS OF MERCURY ON HORSES. 
fects and beneficial operation of the mineral, it is by no means 
necessary that it should be given to an extent in order to produce 
salivation. It may be added to what has been already said, that a 
third reason for mercury being thought slightly of by the veteri- 
narian is, in point of fact, the little benefit derivable from its 
administration, and the few diseases in which it seems required, 
or which cannot be cured as well without it. To this I would, 
by way of answer, say, that as yet we know too little of what may 
be effected in our practice by mercury — we have made far too 
insufficient and too imperfect trials of it to, at present, hazard 
much opinion of its utility. 
There has been a good deal of variety of statement about the 
influence of mercury in its purely metallic or liquid form. A 
vulgar notion prevails, that, if you administer the silvery liquid 
to a man or to an animal that has a stoppage in the bowels, it will, 
from its subtle, slippery, insinuating properties, find its way 
through the obstructed canals, and eventually prove the means of 
rendering them pervious and traversable again ; and it has been 
asserted that we might, in the metallic form, exhibit almost any 
quantity of it, it being devoid of medicinal power. By others, how- 
ever, this has been contradicted, and, on the contrary, they say it 
has proved poisonous. Though the former of these appears like the 
general rule, the latter being the exception, still, both statements 
are reconcileable on the explanations afforded by chemical inquiry 
— that, in some instances, the mercury meeting with oxygen with- 
in the alimentary canal, became oxydized, and thus had its 
medicinal and poisonous properties developed. 
In its active forms, as far as observation has hitherto carried 
us, all animals appear subject to the influence of mercury. The 
various public hospitals and dispensaries in large manufacturing 
towns shew how injurious to the constitution even the fumes of 
mercury are ; and barometer makers, and gilders, and looking-glass 
silverers, and men working in mercurial mines, are continual suf- 
ferers. They become the subjects of that sad disease, called the 
shaking palsy, and in too many instances droop, melancholy ob- 
jects! into their graves. In the Edinburgh Medical and Surgi- 
cal Journal we find the following : — “ In 1810, the Triumph man- 
of-war and Phipps schooners received on board several tons of 
quicksilver, saved from the wreck of a vessel near Cadiz. In 
consequence of the rotting of the bags, the mercury escaped, and 
the whole of the crews became more or less affected. In the space 
of three weeks 200 men were salivated, two died, and all the ani- 
mals, cats, dogs, sheep, goats, fowls, a canary bird — nay, even 
the rats, mice, and cock-roaches, were destroyed.” 
Of the Preparations of Mercery, all appear to operate 
