A letter to Mr. Clare, surgeon, on his new and easy method of introducing mercury into the system through the orifices of the absorbent vessels on the inside of the mouth / [William Turnbull].

  • Turnbull, William, approximately 1729-1796.
Date:
[1783]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to Mr. Clare, surgeon, on his new and easy method of introducing mercury into the system through the orifices of the absorbent vessels on the inside of the mouth / [William Turnbull]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    l confining myfelf entirely to Tea practice1; and you will anticipate me in remarking, that the venereal difeafe conftitutes a great ■part of it.—My objection to the Mercurial unguentous Frictions at fea muft appear clear and obvious to every practitioner on that element, and is plainly this: The unavoidable expofure to the external air for the fpace of half an hour, while the procefs of rubbing in the ointment is per¬ forming in the Cockpit, the place allotted for the furgeons to examine the Tick and wounded. The refult of fuch treatment is an obftruCted perfpiration, which too fre¬ quently terminates in a dangerous febrile affeCtion, and that of the putrid kind, and we are all fenfible how fatally that difeafe ends on fhip board, by perhaps being com¬ municated to half the crew. Advocates and (ticklers for this method of tiling mer¬ cury, have not, or will not attend to the above interefting particulars : they con¬ tend, that the mercurial ointment does not affeCt the alimentary canal, fo as to excite them to evacuate their contents, and that it iseafier conveyed into the circulation,, than when taken into the ftomach in form of bolufes, mixtures, See. that it fooner get* into the fanguiferous fyftem, than when a 3 tak.