It is thrown out, in
part at least, under the epidermis, and there it remains to the patient's
dying day. This is a striking illustration of the difficulty which the
system finds in dealing with non-assimilable elements, and justifies in
some measure the vulgar prejudice against mineral poisons.
I trust the youngest student on these benches will not commit the
childish error of confounding a presumption against a particular class of
agents with a condemnation of them. Mercury, for instance, is alien to
the system, and eminently disturbing in its influence. Yet its efficacy
in certain forms of specific disease is acknowledged by all but the most
sceptical theorists. Even the esprit moqueur of Ricord, the Voltaire of
pelvic literature, submits to the time-honored constitutional authority
of this great panacea in the class of cases to which he has devoted his
brilliant intelligence. Still, there is no telling what evils have
arisen from the abuse of this mineral. Dr. Armstrong long ago pointed
out some of them, and they have become matters of common notoriety. I am
pleased, therefore, when I find so able and experienced a practitioner as
Dr. Williams of this city proving that iritis is best treated without
mercury, and Dr. Vanderpoel showing the same thing to be true for
pericarditis.
Whatever elements nature does not introduce into vegetables, the natural
food of all animal life,--directly of herbivorous, indirectly of
carnivorous animals,--are to be regarded with suspicion.
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