A handbook of local therapeutics / edited by Harrison Allen.

Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook of local therapeutics / edited by Harrison Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    285/554 (page 273)
    HYDRARGYRI OXYCHLORIDUM—HYDRARGYRUM. HYDRARGYRI OXYCHLORIDUM. Oxychloride of Mercury. Mercuric oxychloride is prepared by boiling a solution of corrosive sublimate with oxide of mercury. The solution is filtered and cooled to 60° C, when a whitish precipi- tate separates out, consisting of several oxychlorides of mercury. Most of these oxy- chlorides are insoluble in alcohol, and are by this liquid separated from corrosive sublimate. Diseases of the Eye.—Chibert {Annal. d' Oculist, ci, 252) claims that the oxychloride of mercury is superior to the bichloride as an antiseptic in ophthalmic surgery, because it is better borne by the tissues and does not injure instruments. He bathes the eye freely with a solution of one to fifteen hundred, and states that the most delicate instrurrients are not injured by immersion for ten minutes in a solution of one to one hundred. The oxychloride was recommended by Lawrence, nearly sixty years ago, as an application in the treatment of Purulent Ophthalmia, in the strength of one or two grains to the ounce; and was the chief ingredient in the '' aqua conradi (oxymuriate of mercury, gr. j; mucilage quince seed, 3j ; tinct. of opium, gj; rose water, ad ^vj), which, twenty years ago, was a favorite prescription on the Continent for Conjunctivitis. HYDRARGYRI SUBSULPHAS FLAVUS. Yellow Subsulphate of Mercury. Turpeth Mineral. (Hydrargyri Sulphas Flava. Pharm., . 1870.) Basic Mercuric Sulphate. *' A heavy lemon-yellow powder, permanent in the air, odorless, and almost tasteless, insoluble in water or alcohol, but soluble in nitric or hydrochloric acid. (U. S. P.) Diseases of the Skin.—Turpeth mineral is used by French physi- cians in the treatment of Alopecia and Pityriasis Capitis, being em- ployed in ointment of the strength of ten to fifteen grains t« the ounce. Diseases of the Ear.—F. W. Hinkle recomxmends, in the earliest stage of Acute Inflammation of the Middle Ear, an ointment of yellow sulphate of mercury, one grain to the ounce, applied freely about the pharyngeal orifice of the Eustachian tube and vault of the pharynx. HYDRARGYRUM. Metallic Mercury. Quicksilver. Shining, silver-white metal, liquid at temperature above —40° C. (—40° F.), odor- less and tasteless, and insoluble in ordinary solvents, but soluble in nitric acid without residue. Specific gravity 13.5. (U. S. P.) In its pure state mercury appears to be almost an inert substance, as large quantities of it have been taken without producing any effect. But when it is subdivided, broken into minute particles, its action is much more energetic. 18