Chapter XIV: Of Poisoning with Mercury

The next genus of the metallic poisons includes the preparations of mercury. Some of these are hardly less important than the arsenical compounds. They act with equal energy, produce the same violent symptoms, and cause death with the same rapidity. They have therefore been often given with a criminal intent; and have thus become the subject of inquiry upon trials. In another respect, too, they claim the regard of the medical jurist: their effects on the body, when insidiously introduced in the practice of the arts in which mercury is used, form a branch of that department of medical police, which treats of the influence of trades on the health.