GOLD-DUST AND IRON-FILINGS AS ANTIDOTES. 333 
lution, but must be constantly liable to the error of giving too 
little, or so much as to keep the salt of mercury in solution. 
Albumen acts by causing the disengagement of one portion of 
chlorine, thus converting the bichloride into calomel, which 
renders the patient liable to be salivated, an evil which, if 
none other existed, it would be as well if possible to prevent; 
besides, toxicologists number calomel amongst the compounds 
of mercury for which it is desirable to procure an antidote. 
Perhaps another reason why the exhibition of albumen is not 
followed with better success, arises from the fact that corro- 
sive sublimate is not more active in its affinity for albumen 
than for the mucous membrane of the stomach itself; the ex- 
periments of Berthollet having shown that the same power of 
reducing the bi. to a protochloride, belongs to all animal solids 
and fluids. On this account, no chemical diversion can be ex- 
cited by the presence of the albumen, since the solution of 
mercury does not unite with it by virtue of any peculiar 
elective attraction, over that which it has for the tissues of 
the stomach and bowels; on which latter it exerts its energies 
often to a fatal extent, although albumen is present in them at 
the time. 
Not long since, we were called to witness a most melan- 
choly case of poisoning in a young gentleman of robust health, 
who had swallowed, with suicidal intent, three ounces and a 
half of a saturated solution, (about fifty-five grains,) of corro- 
sive sublimate. Eggs were at hand, and ten minutes had not 
elapsed from the time he took the poison, when we gave him 
at least a quart of a solution of albumen, and continued to 
administer it for some hours. It is not our purpose to state 
this case fully; suffice it to say, that the symptoms were such 
as are usually described, and most violent. There is one cir- 
cumstance, however, worthy of notice in this place, as it serves 
to show the weight of the objections above stated — it is this: — 
The bowels were not acted on until nearly three hours after 
the solution was swallowed, (ample time, we should think, for 
the affinities of the mercury to have been supplied by the al- 
bumen,) and yet, when the dejections did take place, they 
