Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

vomiting, increase discharge of urine, some degree of diaphoresis,
salivation, foetor, gums red and somewhat tender, salivary glands
hard and tender, mouth ulcers, fever, restlessness, anxiety, general
debility, very distressful irritable state of the whole system, excites
heat over the whole body, quickness of the pulse, coppery taste, pain
on chewing, loose teeth, very distressful tumefaction of the tongue
and fauces.’
1815 The Apothecaries Act or An Act for better regulating the practice of
apothecaries throughout England and Wales. It was an attempt to
separate licensed practitioners from the unlicensed ‘quacks’. It was
possible to buy an MD from Aberdeen University and St Andrew’s
University if you had the money and two recommendations. Whereas
‘quacks’ or ‘irregular practitioners’ varied from true charlatans to
experienced educated men. The problem was that there were too
many practitioners for the population and therefore the trained
practitioners wished to squash the untrained competitors. This was
then beginning of general practitioners in the UK.
Dr Francis. ‘On the effects of mercury in its natural state and on its
abuse in certain diseases’: indigestion, loss of appetite, nausea and
vomiting, languor of whole system, convulsions, sanguineous
discharge from alimentary canal, haemorrhage from lungs,
salivation, extreme weakness, preternatural decay of teeth, loss of
sight, memory and voice, and deafness.
1816 France – The Royal Ordonnance of 8th August 1816 ordered the
‘Codex Medicamentarius seu [or] Pharmacopae Gallica’ and it was
published by the Minister of the Interior in 1818 in Latin. It was
compulsory for all French pharmacists to have one and to conform to
it within six months of its publication. There were many later editions:
1837, 1866, 1884, 1908, 1937.
1819 ‘Observations on the use and abuse of mercurial medicines in
various diseases’ by James Hamilton.
This monograph on mercury has an extensive section (Section 1)
on its ADRs: ‘On the effects of mercury’
‘The aching pain which so often follow courses of mercury.’
‘an inordinate action of the heart and arteries’
‘Among other ill effects it tends to produce tremors and paralysis,
and not infrequently incurable mania.’
‘Erythismus’
‘with frightful dreams–impaired or depraved vision –’
‘Mental derangement with eventual fatuity,’