GOLD-DUST AND IRON-PILINGS AS ANTIDOTES. 341 
caustic strength of a mercurial solution, but we deem it of the 
greatest importance, in the treatment of poisoning with corro- 
sive sublimate, to notice the difference. A solution of this 
salt, in its caustic strength, will produce an irrecoverable con- 
dition of things in a few minutes; whereas a solution only 
irritating in effect, may remain on the stomach for a greater 
length of time, without producing any fatal lesion. For ex- 
ample: we applied a saturated solution of corrosive sublimate 
to a blistered surface; it produced the most excruciating tor- 
ment, and on examining the surface some hours after, the true 
skin had lost its vitality in patches, which presented a white 
polished, and shining appearance; about the third day, all the 
parts which had assumed the character described were found 
separated at their margins from the healthy skin, by a clearly 
defined fissure, and between the sixth and tenth days, they 
came away, leaving healthy ulcers, with perpendicular walls, 
and corresponding exactly to the thickness of the skin in 
ance of some ycleped surgeon. So long as this hybrid jumble of science 
and quackery comes daily before the public eye, it is useless to inveigh 
against mountebanks, and not to be wondered at, that a man when he is 
taken sick, should doubt whether to send for some specific, or a physician. 
We expect soon to see some journal which shall be devoted to science, 
surgery, quack specifics and the fine arts; and until such publication shall 
appear we think surgeons who do not wish to incur an empirical reputa- 
tion, would do well to confine themselves to the pages of a medical jour- 
nal, and all apothecaries, who desire the patronage of physicians, would 
be wise to discontinue the advertisement and sale of quack specifics. 
The small capital required to establish an apothecary shop, and the large 
advance on the sale of medicine in small quantities, offers an inducement 
for a great many disqualified individuals to embark in the business. The 
profit arising from the sale of drugs, is no more than a fair compensation 
to those who have spent previous years of hard labor, in making them- 
selves chemists ; bu t in the case of all such as become apothecaries out of 
mere thrift, the profit is unjustifiable and the pursuit itself criminal. 
Many of these worthies are in the habit of prescribing and administering 
extemporaneously, to a large number of the ignorant and credulous, who 
are incapable of distinguishing between them and the well educated physi- 
cian. One of these quasi doctors who set up a drug store some time 
since, was called on by a old lady, to know if he could not give her some- 
