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The History of Mercury as Medicine

  • Writer: FibonacciMD
    FibonacciMD
  • 2 days ago
  • 5 min read

mercury as medicine - teethina powders

Medicinal Use of Mercury 

Mercury has been used medicinally for centuries, dating back to ancient Egypt and China.  In the third century BC, Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang ingested large amounts of mercury in an attempt to achieve immortality.  He reportedly became mentally unstable and died at age 49.  Following his death, he was buried in a tomb believed to contain pools of mercury that, even today, could pose safety concerns if opened.


Mercury sulfide (also known as cinnabar), the ore from which mercury is extracted, was used by ancient Greek physicians and during medieval times to treat a number of maladies, including depression (melancholy), syphilis, parasitic infections, and constipation. 


Ingested mercury can turn stools black and historically was thought to remove “black bile”, one of the four body “humors” (along with blood, phlegm, and yellow bile), the balance of which was necessary for good health. 


A major proponent of using mercury to treat syphilis was Philippus von Hohenheim (1493-1541), better known as Paracelsus.  It was known that mercury was a potent diuretic (increases urination) and can cause excess salivation at toxic doses.  It was thought that these processes would help rid the body of disease.  

Topical, oral, and even inhalational forms of mercury were considered the primary treatments for syphilis from the Middle Ages until the early 20th century.  “A night with Venus, and a lifetime with Mercury." was a common saying.  Although mercury can kill the syphilis spirochete (Treponema pallidum), the amount needed to effectively treat the disease is toxic to humans.  The rash caused by syphilis typically resolves spontaneously, sometimes years before severe systemic symptoms occur, which contributed to the mistaken belief in the healing power of mercury. 


Calomel, mercury as medicine

“Calomel”, a mercury chloride medication, was used from the 16th to the 20th centuries to treat a variety of conditions including constipation, typhoid fever, yellow fever, mumps, depression, and even teething pain.  Its name is derived from the Greek kalos meaning good and melas meaning black. 


Blue Mass - mercury as medicine

“Blue Mass” pills, named for their blue color, contained elemental mercury along with other ingredients such as sugar, licorice, or honey were commonly prescribed as a cure-all.  One of the most famous users of blue mass pills was Abraham Lincoln, who reportedly took them for melancholy.  He stopped taking the pills, possibly due to mercury-induced side effects, before becoming President. 


During the Civil War, William A. Hammond, the Union Army Surgeon General, attempted to limit the administration of calomel to the troops.  He felt that dehydration from mercury-induced diarrhea, combined with the risk of toxicity, was harmful rather than beneficial to soldiers.  His anti-mercury views were not popular with most army physicians, who staged a “calomel rebellion”, and ultimately, he was fired.


Louisa May Alcott, who served as a Civil War nurse, contracted typhoid fever and was treated with calomel.  She attributed her lifelong health problems to that treatment. 

Dough-boy prophylactic, mercury as medicine for Syphilis and Gonorrhea

During World War I, a kit containing calomel ointment was marketed as the “Doughboy Prophylactic” for the prevention of venereal disease.


Arsenic- and bismuth-based therapies replaced mercury as a treatment for syphilis in the early 20th century, but it was not until the 1940s, when penicillin became available, that the disease became reliably curable. 


Toxicity 

Mercury is toxic and in high doses, whether ingested, absorbed through the skin, or inhaled, can cause tremors, incoordination, peripheral neuropathy, impaired vision, cognitive decline, and mood disorders such as depression.  It can also lead to hypertension, decreased fertility, birth defects, and kidney damage.


the Mad Hatter, liquid mercury

It is thought that the “Mad Hatter” character in Alice in Wonderland  may have been inspired by symptomatic hat makers who chronically inhaled vapor from liquid mercury used to convert fur to felt.  The term “Mad as a Hatter” was coined in the mid-18th century in England.  The “Danbury Shakes” was a term used to describe the tremors (as well as incoherent speech, difficulty in walking, and eventual cognitive decline) of hat makers in Danbury, Connecticut, which was a center of hat making in the 1800s.


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Mercury Use and Exposure Today 

Today, mercury is still found in thimerosal (a mercury-containing preservative used in some multi-dose vaccine vials) and dental amalgams.


Numerous large-scale studies conducted over several decades have found no evidence linking thimerosal in vaccines to autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders, but it has been removed from nearly all routine childhood vaccines in the United States as a precautionary measure.


Dental amalgams contain mercury and can release small amounts of mercury vapor that can be absorbed by the body.  Available evidence has not demonstrated adverse health outcomes in the general population from use of amalgams.  However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends caution with some groups and consideration of using other types of dental fillings for them. These groups include pregnant women and their developing fetuses, individuals planning pregnancy, nursing women and infants, young children (particularly those under six years of age), individuals with pre-existing neurological conditions, those with impaired kidney function, and individuals with known hypersensitivity to mercury or other components of dental amalgam.


However, the use of mercury for both these above applications still remains a topic of public debate.


The most common exposure in the U.S. to mercury is by eating seafood, as nearly all fish and shellfish contain trace amounts of methylmercury.  Mercury can enter waterways through geological weathering, volcanic activity, manufacturing, and mining.  Once in the water, it is converted to methylmercury by bacteria which are subsequently ingested by marine organisms.  For adults, typical consumption of fish and shellfish does not lead to observable adverse health effects.  The FDA does recommend that pregnant women and children can obtain health benefits by eating seafood but need to limit their mercury exposure. 

EPA, US Food & Drug, chart on fish/mercury

If you liked this article, you may also enjoy reading The History of Insulin and Type 1 Diabetes. 

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References

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