Existing comment:
Mercury-based Drugs:
Mercury, in various forms, had been used in medicine from as early as 900 AD. Attempts to remove it from military practice during the Civil War met with fierce resistance from doctors. Despite its often toxic outcomes, it was used both externally and internally as a cathartic and laxative, to combat liver disease, typhoid fever, diarrhea, dysentery, venereal disease, skin diseases and more. It was dispensed in elemental form, as mild chloride of mercury ("calomel"), in ointments of nitrate of mercury and most famously as "blue mass" or "blue pills," a mixture of elemental mercury, licorice, rose leaves, and honey. |