Page 28 - Summer2008

The physical LIFE ON THE FRONTIER the system of its disease, and thousands died as
a result. Ignorant of the connection between vi-
Why did so many physicians enthusiasti-
symptoms cally jump onto Rush’s calomel bandwagon? tamin C de ciency and scurvy, many physicians
that manifest Rush was famous because of his political ties, on the frontier treated scurvy with calomel, but
as a result including his close friendships with Benjamin never with success.
of mercury Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. These powerful Moreover, with the large numbers of single
friendships contributed to Rush’s reputation as men on the frontier, saloons and brothels  our-
exposure probably the most inuential physician in early ished, and consequently syphilis and gonorrhea

via calomel America and far beyond his death in 1813. 39 ran rampant. While the mercury injections and
Despite the relationship between Rush oral calomel applications caused the external
are horrific, and Jefferson, however, Jefferson remained a lesion to disappear, transmission was still pos-
yet many critic of heroic medicine, claiming that inexpe- sible, especially from women—mostly prosti-

physicians rienced doctors killed more people “than all the tutes—who had no outer symptoms.
believed in Robinhoods, Cartouches and MacHeaths do in Towards the end of the 19th century and
a century.” Nonetheless, Jefferson chose Rush into the 20th century, thousands of people were
40
the benefits to give the pioneer explorer Meriwether Lewis institutionalized with the mental illness that ac-
of calomel a two-week crash course in medicine before his companies the tertiary stage of syphilis, despite

and “had few famous expedition with William Clark, although (or because of) treatment with the heavy metal.

Up until the mid 1800s, frontier physi-
Lewis had already received some limited medi-
qualms about cal training in the military. On their renowned cians used calomel to treat the diarrhea from
using it.” journey, the crew of 52 men set off with a large thphoid, a disease that was sometimes fatal. The
supply of several medicines, including a few violent purging of the bowels often worsened
different forms of calomel, thanks to Rush’s the patient’s state of dehydration and hastened
recommendations. Historian Volney Steele re- death.
calls, “Following Rush’s advice, the expedition One group that refused treatment with
carried fty dozen of the doctor’s bilious pills, calomel was the Mormons, who crossed the

a strong purgative containing calomel and jalap, frontier from Iowa to Salt Lake in the 1840s. The
which, according to Rush, would ‘gently open founder of the Mormon religion, Joseph Smith,
the bowels’—the understatement of the century. had watched his brother die after taking calomel.
This combination of drugs produced an explosive Therefore the religious leader chose Thomsonian-
intestinal passage and became known by all who ism as the therapy for his followers. 42
used them as ‘thunderclappers.’”
41
Lewis and Clark used the mercurial prepa- THE EFFECTS OF CALOMEL
rations extensively, including for the many cases ON THE PHYSICAL BODY
of syphilis contracted by both the men in the Joseph Smith was hardly the rst or the last

crew and the Native Americans with whom they person to watch a member of his family succumb
socialized. Despite the “heroic” treatment, the to poisoning and death from calomel. Indeed, the
mercury simply suppressed the syphilis rather physical symptoms that manifest as a result of
than curing it, and many men began to show the mercury exposure via calomel are horri c, yet
symptoms of the secondary and tertiary stages many physicians still believed in the bene ts of
of syphilis within months or sometimes years of calomel and “had few qualms about using it.” 43
both the oral mercury (calomel) and its external Calomel was used specically because of

applications. its power as a potent laxative, causing complete
Throughout the middle 19th century, calo- “explosive” evacuation of the bowels but some-
mel remained a popular medicine in the West. times vomiting as well.
Many travelers on the frontier were besieged with What were the other problems created by
cholera, which came in from Europe and could all of this “insoluble” mercury? One journal
kill a person within twelve hours. Despite the suf- noted: “. . . the rst noticeable effect following

ferers’ copious diarrhea and dehydration, frontier the administration of mercury in small medici-
doctors would administer calomel in order to rid nal doses is seen in an increased activity of the
26 Wise Traditions SUMMER 2008