Blundel relates a curious case
occurring in the times when mercury was given in great
quantities, in which to relieve obstinate constipation a half
ounce of crude mercury was administered and repeated in twelve
hours. Scores of globules of mercury soon appeared over a
vesicated surface, the result of a previous blister applied to
the epigastric region. Blundel, not satisfied with the actuality
of the phenomena, submitted his case to Dr. Lister, who, after
careful examination, pronounced the globules metallic.
Oils.--Mauvezin tells of the ingestion of three drams of croton
oil by a child of six, followed by vomiting and rapid recovery.
There was no diarrhea in this case. Wood quotes Cowan in
mentioning the case of a child of four, who in two days recovered
from a teaspoonful of croton oil taken on a full stomach. Adams
saw recovery in an adult after ingestion of the same amount.
There is recorded an instance of a woman who took about an ounce,
and, emesis being produced three-quarters of an hour afterward by
mustard, she finally recovered. There is a record in which so
small a dose as three minims is supposed to have killed a child
of thirteen months." According to Wood, Giacomini mentions a case
in which 24 grains of the drug proved fatal in as many hours.
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