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The Arab influence
Published in Michael J. O’Dowd, The History of Medications for Women, 2020
Calomel, a milder formulation of mercury, was introduced into medical practice in about 1608. The name (from the Greek kalos beautiful and melas black) related to its physical appearance and was coined by Theodore Turquet de Mayerne. Another form of mercury known as ‘corrosive sublimate’ was introduced in the middle of the eighteenth century, and was also used as a remedy for syphilis: the original formula was 24 grains of corrosive sublimate dissolved in two quarts of whisky, a tablespoonful to be taken night and morning. A compound called ‘catholicon, thought to be a universal panacea, was a preparation of gold and corrosive sublimate and known as aurum vitae, the gold of life. Precipitated mercury (red precipitate) was at one time used as a purgative (Wootton, 1910 vol. 1, pp. 408–22).
Medicines for Weakness: 1900 to c. 1950
Published in John K. Crellin, A Social History of Medicines in the Twentieth Century, 2020
Many would have readily seen a link with autointoxication as they read about torpid and sluggish livers or about the absorption of poisons from the intestinal tract in laxative advertisements. "Decay is not digestion" was a slogan of Cascarets, a chocolate flavored preparation that was sold to correct the problem of weak "bowel-muscles."176 Dangerous, "sluggish" bowels were referred to in many advertisements. Syrup of Figs, for example, alerted elderly men and women in 1912 to deal with torpid livers and weak, sluggish bowels that "allow decaying waste and poisons" to enter into the blood.177 One popular laxative commonly prescribed by physicians, calomel (mercurous chloride), needs mention because it represents an interesting example of a medicine's slow demise. Calomel had long had validation with physicians and the public. Although it came under attack in the nineteenth century by alternative practitioners as dangerous in the doses used,178 many physicians were still prescribing it in the 1930s not only as a laxative but also as teething powders for children, a prepara tion ultimately recognized as dangerous to the general health of children.179
The Treatment of the Special Forms of Mental Disease
Published in Francis X. Dercum, Rest, Suggestion, 2019
At the outset it is wise, as a rule, to give an efficient dose of calomel, followed by a saline, so as to empty the intestinal tract. The purge itself usually acts as a sedative and prepares the patient for a subsequent course of full feeding. The diet should be practically such as is employed in ordinary neurasthenic cases. Other things equal, milk should be given with meals, between meals, and at bedtime, and in as large a quantity as the patient can take and digest. Full feeding is absolutely essential.
Did poisoning play a role in Napoleon’s death? A systematic review
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2021
Daniela Marchetti, Francesca Cittadini, Nadia De Giovanni
The modern analytical investigation detected other elements than As in Napoleon’s hair with evidence of high homogeneous levels of Sb [9,19,22]; Kintz detected Hg and Pb [22]. Physicians who attended Napoleon the days before death were reported to have administered toxic substances as calomel or tartar emetic. In detail, a quarter of a grain of tartar emetic with abundant vomiting (22–24 March); calomel followed by gastric bleeding (28 April); 10 grains (600 mg) of the calomel on the afternoon of 3 May (5.30 pm) induced copious stools with the appearance of tar about thirty minutes before midnight [4,6,10,14,26,30]. Forshufvud [50] affirmed that the administration of mercurial laxative calomel with orgeat, an orange-flavoured drink containing the oil of bitter almonds [51], produced a soluble, toxic and corrosive mercury cyanide [30]. Thus, the course of clinical symptoms the days before death is not comparable with bleeding solely or nearly completely to a gastric wall ulceration due to cancer.
Perkins’s patent metallic “Tractors”: Development, adoption, and early dissemination of an eighteenth-century therapeutic fad
Published in Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 2019
In a subsequent letter to Scottish physician James Currie, M.D. (1756–1805), Wright expressed his doubts about Perkins’s and Oliver’s claims of effectiveness for this tonic: Two physicians in America, Drs Perkins and B. Lynde Oliver, have published an 8vo [octavo] volume on Dysentery, & c. cured by ‘Dr Wright’s medicine,’ and say it will supercede the use of all others in the cure of fluxes.6There is no record of a monograph by Perkins and Oliver in WorldCat (indicating no copies held in libraries around the world), Google Books, or other online sources. It is likely that, in his second letter, Wright misremembered the source of his information, which was a short publication by Oliver in which he attached Perkins’s notice of his use of the vinegar tonic. I am not quite so sanguine: I often find that obstinate dysentery will only yield to calomel [mercury(I) chloride]. (Wright, 1828, p. 134)
Reproducibility and flexibility of monoclonal antibody production with Nicotiana benthamiana
Published in mAbs, 2022
Kelsi Swope, Josh Morton, Gregory P. Pogue, Leigh Burden, Nicholas Partain, Steve Hume, John Shepherd, Carrie A. Simpson, Miles B. Brennan, Thomas C. Furman, Sheila Kingrey-Gebe, Theresa Martinez, Jim McDonough, Michael H. Pauly, Kevin J. Whaley, Larry Zeitlin, Barry Bratcher, Hugh Haydon
The physical and chemical properties of the final product were tested using conventional pH (USP <791>), osmolality (USP<785>), and spectrophotometric assays. Target pH was assessed with a VWR Symphony pH meter affixed with a Beckman Coulter Calomel electrode. Osmolality was analyzed using an Advanced Instruments 3320 Osmometer. Protein concentration of the in-process product and final product was determined using a Spectramax M2 Spectrophotometer based on A280 or A280 – A320 for background correction, as necessary, and the molecule-specific predicted extinction coefficient (calculated using the amino acid sequence).