Experiments and observations on the absorption of active medicines into the circulation : submitted, as an inaugural thesis, to the examination of the Reverend John Ewing ..., the Trustees and Medical Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, on the eighth day of June, 1801, for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Benjamin Hodge.

  • Hodge, Benjamin G.
Date:
1801
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments and observations on the absorption of active medicines into the circulation : submitted, as an inaugural thesis, to the examination of the Reverend John Ewing ..., the Trustees and Medical Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, on the eighth day of June, 1801, for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Benjamin Hodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    [ 56 ] did not suffer any change,^ but in a short time, the copper became as white as silver, and some persons, very capable of judging, declared it to be the eifect of amalgamation. As the gold, however, was not affected, some doubts still remained, which, I thought, could only be cleared up by a comparative experiment. EXPERIMENT. I, therefore, obtained some blood from a per- son, who was not under the use of mercury, and by treating it as in the last experiment, the same appearance precisely took place. The copper was whitened. Had not faith in the experiments of others, and some degree of scepticism, induced me to make this trial upon the blood of a healthy per- son, I should have been most miserably deceived. The deduction, then, that must be formed from these and other experiments, is, that mer- cury does not exist in the circulation or secretions in a pure metallic state. But they go no further; for, if mercury had been present, either as an oxyde, or in combination with an acid, it is evi- dent, it would not have been detected by the means made use of; and proper experiments, with a view to find it in those states, have not, as far as 1 know, been made. But do not the depositions of fluid mercury (supposing for a moment that such was ever the