Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

How many patients have they lost?
How many thousands they make ill,
Of poison, with their calomel.’ (Shryock, 1947).
Richard Carmichael in ‘An essay on venereal diseases and the use
of mercury in their treatment’ 2 nd edition, 1825 gave the various
treatments that he used for different manifestations of syphilis:
Table 3. Treatments for Syphilis
Astringent washes Antimonials Purgatives Hyoscyamus
Leeches Blisters Poultices Blood letting
Sarsaparilla Mercury Local bleeding Guaicum
Tar ointment Bath of suphurated Kali Nitro-muriatic bath Sulphorous fumigation
Tartarised antimony oint. Fomentations Opium Terebinth
Cicuta
Nitrous acid
After 1814 many patients were treated without the use of mercury
(Carmichael, 1825).
A James Morison (1770–1834) manufactured and sold in their
millions Morison’s Vegetable Universal pills for all ills, which
contained: gamboge, aloes, cream of tartar (potassium hydrogen
tartrate) and colocynth. They cost only a shilling a box so it was
cheaper than going to the doctor. The pills killed many people due to
‘mortification of the bowels’.