528 
ACTION  OF  VEGETABLE  ACIDS  ON  CALOMEL. 
Hydrochloric  acid  has  not  the  property  of  uniting  immediate- 
ly with  calomel,  or  to  cause  it  to  pass  from  the  state  of  proto-  to 
that  of  deuto-chloride,  because  the  affinity  of  chlorine  for  hydro- 
gen (reduction  of  the  chloride  of  silver  by  means  of  nascent 
hydrogen)  exceeds  its  affinity  for  mercury.  Still  its  employment 
should  not  be  advised  with  calomel,  because  combining  with  the 
alkaline  substances  in  the  body,  it  passes  to  the  state  of  chloride, 
whose  action  we  have  already  described. 
The  extreme  ease  with  which  the  mercurial  chloride  is  con- 
verted into  a  soluble  salt  under  the  influence  of  so  many  chemical 
agents,  renders  great  prudence  necessary  on  the  part  of  the 
physician. 
Corrosive  sublimate  dissolved  in  syrup,  does  not  deposit  calo- 
mel for  twenty-four  hours.  The  saccharolate  had  not  lost  its 
clearness  after  four  days,  nor  deposited  the  least  precipitate, 
after  having  been  exposed  to  a  temperature  varying  from  86°  to 
140°  F.  (30°  to  60°  C.)  After  boiling  for  some  time,  the  syrup 
becomes  turbid  and  deposits  proto-chloride.  The  saccharine 
solution,  already  more  or  less  decomposed  by  the  partial  carboni- 
zation of  the  sugar,  yielded  a  further  quantity  of  deutochloride 
to  sulphuric  ether,  which  proves  that  the  sugar  which  is  general- 
ly added  to  calomel  is  rather  employed  to  give  a  pleasant  flavor 
to  the  medicament,  than  to  convert  into  protochloride  the  traces 
of  deutochloride,  which  the  calomel  might  possibly  contain,  as  is 
the  general  opinion. 
Animal  albumen,  which  is  generally  recommended  to  neutral- 
ise the  effect  of  deutochloride  of  mercury  does  not  possess  this 
quality  to  the  extent  that  might  be  desired.  M.  Orfila,  who 
first  recommended  albuminous  water  in  poisoning  by  corrosive 
sublimate,  advises  giving  enough  to  decompose  the  whole,  but 
not  to  give  too  much,  so  that  an  excess  might  not  redissolve  the 
sparingly  soluble  compound,  which  this  mercurial  chloride  forms 
with  the  albumen,  and  thus  restores  to  it  a  portion  cf  its  poison- 
ous qualities. 
In  poisoning  by  the  soluble  salts  of  mercury,  we  think  that  the 
preference  as  an  antidote  should  be  given  to  substances  ^which 
the  digestive  functions  will  not  alter,  such  as  hydrated  proto- 
sulphuret  of  iron,  advised  by  M.  Mialhe,  tannate  of  potassa  and 
iron  filings  themselves. — London  Chemist,  August,  1856,  from 
Annates  de  la  Societe  de  Medicine  de  Grand,  May,  1856. 
