GOLD-DUST AND IRON-PILINGS AS ANTIDOTES. 331 
ART. XLVII.— ON THE USE OF GOLD-DUST AND IRON- 
FILINGS AS A GALVANIC ANTIDOTE TO CORROSIVE 
SUBLIMATE, AND ALL THE OTHER POISONOUS COM- 
POUNDS OF MERCURY. By T. H. Buckler, M. D., of 
Baltimore. 
The compounds of mercury being, without exception, more 
or less poisonous, it would seem that the only single method 
of rendering them innocuous, is to revive the metallic mer- 
cury, and thus separate it from the agents with which it is 
combined. Of all the compounds of mercury, corrosive sub- 
limate — bichloride of mercury, oxymuriate, corrosive muri- 
ate — is the one for which it is most desirable to procure a 
suitable antidote. It is somewhat curious that this agent, pos- 
sessing so wide a range of chemical affinities, should have baf- 
fled chemists and toxicologists for so long a time, in their nu- 
merous efforts to find some direct chemical agent capable of 
decomposing it in the stomach, and thereby prevent the cor- 
rosive and deadly action which so surely follows its presence — 
unless in the smallest quantity — in that organ. The difficulty 
has arisen, of course, from the more or less poisonous nature 
of all its compounds. It has even been shown that corrosive 
sublimate possesses the properties of an acid, and unites with 
the alkalifiable bases ; but here, as in other instances, the com- 
pounds resulting are even more intense irritants than the bi- 
chloride itself. The inutility of finding an antidote to an agent 
so deadly in its effects, may be urged by many, although it is 
not a more powerful irritant than oxalic acid, for which latter 
we have, luckily, a ready and certain antidote, and on this ac- 
count alone, we are enabled to predict a very different result 
where it has been taken into the stomach, than we would be 
likely to foretell if corrosive sublimate were swallowed. It is 
therefore idle to say, that it is useless to attempt to find some 
more certain antidote to this most deadly poison: more espe- 
cially, when even the observations that have been made on 
poisoning with prussic acid, have been productive of practical 
