Volume 1

The elements of materia medica and therapeutics / by Jonathan Pereira.

  • Jonathan Pereira
Date:
1849-1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of materia medica and therapeutics / by Jonathan Pereira. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    904/934 (page 874)
    2. Hydrargyri Dipernitras.—Bibasic Nitrate of the Oxide of Mercury. Formula 2IIg0,N05. Equivalent Weight 270. Preparation.—By boiling mercury in strong nitric acid, until the liquid, when diluted with water, ceases to yield a white precipitate (calomel) on the addition of a solution of common salt, we obtain a solution of the nitrate of the oxide of mercury (solatia mercurii calide par at a). By concentration, it acquires the density of 3'47. In this state it has an acrid metallic taste, and colours the skin, when exposed to light, purplish-red. The solution probably contains neutral nitrate of the oxide of mercury, IIgO,N05. But by evaporation acid fumes escape, and there are formed crystals of the bibasic nitrate, 2Hg0,N05,2H0. Properties.—If the crystallized bibasic nitrate be washed with cold water as long as the liquid runs off sour, a heavy yellow powder is obtained, which is the lribasic nitrate of the oxide of mercury, 3Hg0,N05,H0 : this, when boiled in water, yields a brick-red powder, which is the sexbasic nitrate of the oxide of mercury, 6Hg0,N05. Purity.—The presence of nitrate of the suboxide of mercury in a solution of nitrate of the oxide of mercury, is known by the production of a white pre- cipitate (calomel) on the addition of a solution of common salt (see ante,p. 873). Physiological Effects.—This nitrate is more acrid and caustic than the protonitrate. Its effects are analogous to those of corrosive sublimate, indeed, it becomes converted, in the alimentary canal, into the latter salt by the action of the alkaline chlorides it there meets with. Uses.—Internally, it is now never employed. It was formerly given in doses of -p^th of a grain. Externally, it is used in two forms,—as an acid solution, and as an ointment. 1. LIQUOR HYDRARGYRI SUPERNITRATIS ; Solution of Supernitrate of Mercury ; Nitras Hydraryyricus Acido Nitrico Solutus; Liquid Arid Deutonitrate of Mercury ; Acid Nitrate of Mercury. (Take of Mercury, four parts by weight; Nitric Acid [sp. gr. 1'321], eight parts by weight. Dissolve the mercury in the nitric acid, and evaporate the solution to nine parts.)—This solution is dense and very caustic. It contains 71 per cent, of pernitrate of mercury, and an excess of nitric acid. It is frequently employed m the Parisian hospitals as a caustic. Biett frequently employed it with success in lupus. It should be applied to the extent of a crown-piece, by means of a brash, to the ulcers, tubercles, and scars which remain soft or purple, and seem on the point of breaking: lint moistened with the solution is then to be applied to the cauterized surface. The parts immediately become white, a kind of erysipelatous inflammation is set up in the surrounding parts, and in a few days a yellow scab gradually falls off. This solution is also used for the cauterization of the ulcerated cervix uteri. “ When the inflammation is intense, the ulceration large, and the granulations redundant or unhealthy, it exercises a very prompt and beneficial influence, generally cleansing and modifying the sore in one application. In very slight