A preparation of mercury, much used in medicine. It is called the submuriate or protochloride of mercury, and is prepared in various ways, by sublimation or precipitation, and also in the dry way. The following are the directions given in the last London Pharmacopoeia. Take of muriated quicksilver one pound, and of purified quicksilver, nine ounces; rub them together till the globules disappear; then sublime, and repeat the sublimation twice more successively.
Word of the Day: Catachrestical
Mild chloride of mercury, Hg2Cl2, a heavy, white or yellowish white substance, insoluble and tasteless, much used in medicine as a mercurial and purgative; mercurous chloride. It occurs native as the mineral horn quicksilver.
Calomel
Encyclopedia Britannica
CALOMEL, mercurous chloride, or subchloride of mercury (HgCl), is a compound of mercury of great value in medicine. It occurs native as horn quicksilver in the mercury mines of Idria, at Obermoschel, in Bavaria, Horowitz in Bohemia, and Almaden in Spain, in the form of translucent tetragonal crystals, with an adamantine lustre, and a dirty white grey or brownish colour.
A great number of processes are available for the preparation of calomel for pharmaceutical purposes. The directions of the British Pharmacopoeia are as follows:— Sulphate of mercury 10 oz., mercury 7 oz,, common salt 5 oz., and boiling distilled water. The sulphate of mercury is to be moistened with part of the water, and it and the mercury rubbed up together until all metallic globules disappear. The salt is then added, and the whole thoroughly triturated, after which it is sublimed in a vessel of such capacity that the calomel, instead of forming a crystalline crust on the sides as it would do in a vessel of small dimensions, shall fall in the form of a fine impalpable powder on the floor of the receiver. The sublimate is to be washed until the washings cease to be darkened on the addition of a drop of sulphide of ammonium. The reaction in the above case may be represented thus:
HgSO 4 + Hg + 2NaC1 = Na 2 SO 4 + 2HgCl....
After thorough washing the calomel has to be dried at a temperature not exceeding 212° Fahr., and preserved in a jar away from the light, exposure to which darkens it by partial decomposition into corrosive sublimate HgCl 2 and metallic mercury. Calomel when so prepared is a dull, heavy, white, nearly tasteless powder, which is rendered yellowish by trituration in a mortar or when heated. It is entirely insoluble in water, alcohol, or ether, and volatilizes, below a red heat, without fusion. When sublimed in a confined chamber it forms a crust or cake, the inner surface of which is covered with crystals in fine quadrangular prisms, having a transparent dirty-white appearance.
Calomel is one of the mildest and most frequently employed of all mercurial preparations, producing its effects with little local irritation. It exercises a powerful influence on the secreting organs, stimulating the liver and intestinal glands to increased activity, on which account it is much relied on in cases of functional derangement of the liver. It is usually combined with other remedial agents, each exercising an influence in modifying the effect or increasing the activity of the other. Thus as a purgative it is combined with jalap, scammony, colocynth, and other similar substances. The much used Plummer’s pill, which is essentially the same as the compound calomel pill of the British Pharmacopoeia, contains in addition to calomel an equal weight of oxysulphide of antimony, with guaiacum and castor oil. It is employed both in Europe and America as an alterative in chronic skin diseases, in liver affections, and in disorders of the digestive system. On account of its tastelessness calomel is a convenient aperient for children, who however appear to be less susceptible to its effects than adults. It has been used in very large doses in the treatment of cholera; and it is a convenient medium for producing salivation. Suspended in gum or glycerine water it has bèeu used for hypodermic injection; and in the form of an ointment it is one of the most useful of external applications in the case of obstinate skin diseases.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 4, p. 711
[579 words — estimated reading time: 4 minutes]
[579 words — estimated reading time: 4 minutes]
Remedy Roget’s Thesaurus §662
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V. apply a remedy, doctor, dose, physic, nurse, minister to, attend, dress the wounds, plaster, drain, prevent, relieve, palliate, restore, drench with physic, bleed, cup, let blood, manicure, operate, excise, cut out, incise
Adj. remedial, restorative, corrective, palliative, healing, sanatory, sanative, prophylactic, preventative, immunizing, salutiferous, medical, medicinal, therapeutic, chirurgical, epulotic|, paregoric, tonic, corroborant, analeptic, balsamic, anodyne, hypnotic, neurotic, narcotic, sedative, lenitive, demulcent|, emollient, depuratory, detersive, detergent, abstersive, disinfectant, febrifugal, alterative, traumatic, vulnerary, allopathic, heteropathic, homeopathic, hydropathic, anthelmintic, antifebrile, antiluetic, aperient, chalybeate, deobstruent, depurative, laxative, roborant, dietetic, alimentary, nutritious, nutritive, peptic, alexipharmic, alexiteric, remediable, curable, phr, aux grands maux les grands remedes, dios que da la llaga da la medicina, para todo hay remedio sino para la muerte, temporis ars medicina fere est, "the remedy is worse than the disease", "throw physic to the dogs, i'll none of it"
No Bible verses found for "Calomel".