Page 29 - Summer2008

secretions, especially those of the intestines. . . sometimes sensible of a coppery or metallic Public
If the action of the medicine is pushed farther, taste; the gums are swollen, red, and tender;
it becomes apparent that we are dealing with a ulcers make their appearance and spread in all opposition
destructive agent. . . The blood itself is altered in directions; the saliva is thick and stringy, and to heroic

character. . . and coagulates with difculty. Pro- has that peculiar, offensive odor characteristic medicine,
cesses of repair are interrupted, so that recently of mercurial disease; the tongue is swollen and
healed wounds open afresh; the body becomes stiff, and there is some fever, with derangement including
emaciated, the face pallid. These effects appear of the secretions. The disease progressing, it de- the use of
in the most striking manner in the well-known stroys every part that it touches, until the lips, the calomel, grew
phenomenon of mercurial salivation. . . In the cheeks, and even the bones have been eaten away
effort of the system to rid itself of so deadly a before death comes to the sufferer’s relief.” 46 exponentially
poison. . . the normal avenues of excretion not Rothstein goes on to elaborate that when throughout

proving sufcient to carry off this unusual ac- a person has taken a toxic dose of calomel, not the 19th
cumulation of dead matter, the salivary glands as only do the teeth then become loose, rot, and
a last resource are called to do an unusual duty. fall out, but the jaw bones begin to disintegrate century
. . [in mercury poisoning] more frequently the in  akes and layers. Parts of the mouth, tongue as other

patient lingers for ten to twenty-four hours, often and palate could also rot away, and in this state therapies
enduring all that time atrocious sufferings.” one existed for the rest of one’s life—provided
44
It was not until after the Civil War that one actually survived both the disease and the became more
excess salivation was recognized universally therapy. Even after small doses for a longer pe- popular.
47
as a sign of mercurial poisoning. Some patients riod of time—say, six months—the gums would
were able to recover from their illnesses and be swollen, eating painful, and teeth loose, if they
from the poisoning, although they tended to be had not already fallen out.
somewhat disabled for the remainder of their
lives, especially those who had lost teeth, jaw CRITICISM AGAINST CALOMEL

muscle, or jaw bone in the process. It was exactly because of these horric
Reports from alternative journals, such as side effects of heroic medicine’s beloved calomel
those of the homeopaths, botanicals, and eclec- that Americans began turning to safer, alterna-
tics, are quite gruesome in describing some of tive forms of therapy such as botanic medicine,
the suffering and deaths resulting from mercurial eclectic medicine and homeopathy.
poisoning from calomel. Partly because of how As early as the 1750s some traditional phy-
it accumulates in the tissues, partly because of sicians in the Colonies were speaking out against
the sheer amount of exposure in relation to body such strong practices and encouraging natural
weight, children and adolescents were particular- remedies. Two hundred years earlier, Paracel-
ly affected by the high doses of calomel as well as sus had chastised his fellow physicians to give
from the poisoning they probably encountered in smaller doses, as he recognized that mercury,
utero, and many children, if they even survived, even in the form of calomel, was a poisonous
endured a lifetime with no teeth, sore gums and substance. By 1826, perhaps thanks to Samuel
a jaw that could open less than an inch. Special- Hahnemann and his concepts of homeopathy,
ists in surgery began to devise ways of saving many Europeans were beginning to speak out
patients who were deformed by the poisoning, against the use of calomel. Pierre Bretonneau
creating devices that would slowly re-open the (1778-1862) was a French physician who saw
jaws that were closed in a xed position as a side that local, external applications of mercury com-

effect of too much calomel. pounds triggered ulcerations similar to syphilis
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John M. Scudder, one of the most promi- on the skin, and in 1837 the Scot, John Hunter,
nent practitioners of eclectic medicine, described stated that “mercurial medicines caused typical
some of the effects that he saw in patients who rheumatism symptoms, with administration of
continued to receive “heroic” doses of calomel more medicine only worsening the patient’s
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even after the onset of swollen gums and sali- condition.” American and British physicians
vation: “The mouth feels unusually hot, and is came under  re from their continental European
SUMMER 2008 Wise Traditions 27