Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

oxide HgO, corrosive sublimate (mercuric chloride HgCl 2 ), calomel (mercurous
chloride HgCl) and the pure metal Hg (Quicksilver). Its various forms have differing
adverse effects. The crude ore is cinnabar, which contains mercuric sulphide, HgS.
Mercury’s principal use was in syphilis, but it was also used in gout, cancer, palsy,
asthma, obstructions of the liver and gall bladder, leprosy and women’s disorders
(Harris, 1734).
4. Opium, Papaver somniferum
Figure 5 Opium
Opium is included because its
use spans 4200 BC to the
present day and its adverse
effects are well known. It consists
of many alkaloids including:
morphine < 23%, papaverine <
11% (peripheral action
depressing plain muscle),
codeine < 1% (only 1/20 as much
narcotic action as morphia but ¼
its action on cough and
respiratory centre), thebaine 1%,
narcotine < 10% (excitant action
on the respiratory centre) and
noscapine