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SELECTED ARTICLES. 
contained so much mercury in solution, that the skin surround- 
ing the anus was excoriated, precisely as if a strong solution 
had been directly applied. In spite of the albumen, which 
was largely administered, the corrosive action was exerted on 
the mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels for eight 
hours, producing during the whole of this time the most ex- 
cruciating agony. So soon, however, as the chemical action 
was at an end, their was comparative calmness and freedom 
from pain. He died on the eighth day; and we feel warrant- 
ed in the belief, that had we possessed some agent capable of 
decomposing the solution within the first half hour, his chance 
of recovery would have been good. We do not mean to dis- 
parage the importance of albumen as a demulcent and diluent, 
and are disposed to believe that more good is to be attributed 
to these qualities, than to its chemical agency. 
It would seem, then, that the object is still to obtain an an- 
tidote, for which corrosive sublimate possesses affinities large- 
ly predominant over the tendency it has to combine with ani- 
mal constituents, and it is with the hope of fulfilling this indi- 
cation, that we have been induced to make the following ex- 
periments. The agents by which we propose to render the 
bichloride innocuous, are iron-filings and gold-dust: it will be at 
once seen that their mode of action is referrible solely to the 
phenomena of galvanism. Thus, if we place a drop of a solu- 
lution of corrosive sublimate on a polished piece of gold or 
iron, the surface of the two metals will remain bright at the 
point covered by the drop for a long time, unless we bring the 
iron and gold in contact, through the solution, when both 
metals become instantly tarnished: the iron oxydized, and the 
gold coated over with metallic quicksilver. If we drop into a 
solution of mercury a polished card-tooth, to which we have 
caused particles of gold to adhere, it will become tarnished the 
moment it comes in contact with the fluid, and a globule of 
quicksilver combined with the gold, may be seen hanging to 
it, as it falls to the bottom of the solution. If, in like manner, 
we throw gold-dust into a solution of mercury, no action will 
take place until we add iron-filings, when the metallic mer- 
