It is not the least interesting fact in the history of aërial poisons,
that substances, which are found to be extremely slow in their action,
or even quite inert, when administered in their solid or liquid state,
exert a very rapid and energetic operation when they are presented to
the human body in the attenuated form of vapour. This fact is well
illustrated by the subtlety and activity of metallic mercury _in the
state of vapour_; a substance which, according to the highest
authorities, is quite inactive when introduced in its grosser form into
the stomach. It is thus that the workmen employed in gilding, silvering
looking-glasses, constructing barometers, &c. experience such dreadful
effects; that such effects arise from the _metal_ in a state of vapour,
and not, as some have supposed, from the _oxide_,[500] is a fact capable
of demonstration, for the artists at Birmingham affix an apparatus in
their chimneys as a system of economy, in order to collect the mercury,
which is always found in its _metallic_ state.[501] From the late
interesting experiments of _Mr. Faraday_,[502] it appears that _mercury_
rises in vapour at the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere; the
knowledge of which fact will afford a very satisfactory explanation of
several phenomena, which were previously unintelligible. _Dr.
Hermbstaed_, in the memoir, above mentioned, “on the volatility of
substances hitherto considered as fixed bodies,” relates the following
curious fact with regard to the volatility of mercury. “At the Royal
Manufactory of looking-glasses in Berlin, during a severe winter, the
artificers who worked in a room, which had originally served for the
process of _silvering_ the glasses, lighted a fire, and thus heated the
apartment to between 86° and 96° _Fah._ In a few days the whole of them
were, to their great surprise, affected by a strong salivation, as there
was no trace of mercury in, or near the room. They consulted on the
subject, and suspecting the real cause of the event, had the flooring of
the room taken up, when about 40 lbs of the metal were found spread
about in different parts, where it had fallen at various times during
the operation of silvering, which had been executed in that room
before.” With such facts before us, we shall no longer be unable to
explain the effects which were produced on board his majesty’s ship
_Triumph_, off Cadiz, in April 1809, by the bursting of leathern bags
containing quicksilver, and the consequent dispersion of not less than
three tons of the metal through the vessel. The interest excited by this
case has been very great, and as the facts, involved in its history, are
of high medical importance, we were induced to apply for permission to
search the journals of the ship; and, through the kindness of _Dr.
Burnett_, one of his majesty’s commissioners for victualling the navy,
and the assistance of _Mr. Plowman_, who held the situation of surgeon
to the _Triumph_, we have been enabled to obtain a correct and detailed
history of the event. Previous to the circumstances we are about to
describe, “the ship’s company had been tolerably healthy, when
unfortunately a quantity of quicksilver was received on board, and
diffused over the ship in consequence of the bursting of the leathern
bags, in which it had been enclosed; when its effects were soon
displayed upon the crew, by occasioning ptyalism, partial paralysis,
affections of the bowels; so that in three weeks, no less than two
hundred men were in a state of salivation. In consequence of which two
transports were taken up as hospital ships, in which the slighter cases
soon recovered; but as many fresh cases occurred daily, _Vice-Admiral
Pickmore_ ordered a survey on the ship, and ship’s company, by the
surgeons of the squadron, on the third of May, who reported the
necessity of sending the ship into port, in order to clear her hold,
change part of her provisions, into which the quicksilver had insinuated
itself, and to purify her by means of ablution. This was accordingly
done; but on stowing the hold afresh, every man so employed, as well as
those engaged in the steward’s room, were attacked with ptyalism. Fresh
cases happened daily, until they took their departure from Cadiz on the
13th of June; after which but few occurred, which was attributed by the
surgeon to the coldness of the weather, the fresh breezes from the
north-east, from the men having been kept constantly on deck, and not
allowed to sleep on the orlop, and from not suffering those affected
with ptyalism to lie on the lower deck; as well as from the constant
attention paid in the ventilation of the ship by means of wind-sails.
But, notwithstanding all these precautions, the ship had not been more
than ten days at sea, when many of the men became worse, and it was
found necessary to send twenty-four seamen on board the _Goshawk_, and
two transports. On the arrival of the _Triumph_ in Cawsand Bay, on the
5th of July, there did not remain one case of ptyalism on their list.
During this extraordinary visitation two men died from excessive
ptyalism, one of them at Cadiz, having previously lost his teeth, and
both cheeks at the time of his decease being in a state of sphacelation;
the other, who died at Gibraltar, had lost the whole of his teeth,
two-thirds of his tongue, and, at the time of his death, the lower lip
was in a state of gangrene. To the interesting facts above related, _Mr.
Plowman_ adds, that the interior of the ship was covered with a black
powder, and that the copper bolts displayed the mercurial influence. The
mercurial vapours proved fatal to the living stock on board, for nearly
all the poultry, sheep, pigs, mice,[503] goats, cats, a dog, and even a
canary bird, died from its influence.”