MERCURIAL OINTMENT AND VAPOR OF MERCURY. 
63 
the lungs contained numerous white spots, resembling miliary tu- 
bercles, partly surrounded by a hypersemic line. The microscope 
detected in the spots granulated cells resembling pus-corpuscles, but 
no globules of mercury. The other organs were altered as in the 
preceding experiment. 
3. A rabbit was enclosed in a capacious cage, in which a porce- 
lain trough, 1. foot long and 9 inches in breadth, full of mercury, 
was placed. The temperature of the room was about 30° Fahren- 
heit. During the first fourteen days no change was perceptible ; 
it then however lost its liveliness, sat in a crouching position, and 
lost its appetite. It gradually became constantly duller and the 
respiration quicker ; on the twentieth day it dragged its hind legs 
along; it had a diarrhoea of blackish-brown matter, and on the 
twenty-second day it was dead. The blood was found loosely coag- 
ulated, the stomach and intestines were greatly distended, and the 
large intestine contained black liquid fsecal matter. The substance 
of the lung was everywhere compact, and studded with small white 
spots resembling miliary tubercles and isolated sugillations of the 
size of a lentil. No globules of mercury could be found. 
These experiments prove that the vapor of mercury condenses 
upon the mucous membrane of the air-passages and in the air-cells 
of the lungs to globules, there causing inflammation and lobular 
hepatization ; that the mercury subsequently disappears from here ; 
and that after the long-continued action of the vapors of mercury, 
the phenomena of mercurialization are developed. The experi- 
ments have certainly not shown the manner in which the solution 
and absorption of the globules of mercury take place. We can 
only assert thus much, that this cannot possibly occur without pre- 
vious oxidation. 
The results to which the preceding experiments have led may be 
summed up as follows : — 
1. Metallic mercury is not capable of permeating animal mem- 
branes either in the finely-divided or gaseous state. 
2. On triturating mercury with various substances, a small quan- 
tity of protoxide of mercury is formed, and this is the sole ac- 
tive constituent of the blue ointment and several other prepara- 
tions. 
3. The action of the blue ointment is uncertain, because the 
