Editing Syphilis (section)

===Historic use of mercury===
As a form of [[chemotherapy]], elemental mercury had been used to treat skin diseases in Europe as early as 1363.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Syphilis – Its early history and Treatment until Penicillin and the Debate on its Origins|author=John Frith |journal=History|volume=20|number=4|url=https://jmvh.org/article/syphilis-its-early-history-and-treatment-until-penicillin-and-the-debate-on-its-origins/}}</ref> As syphilis spread, preparations of mercury were among the first medicines used to combat it. Mercury is in fact highly anti-microbial: by the 16th century it was sometimes found to be sufficient to halt development of the disease when applied to ulcers as an [[wikt:inunction|inunction]] or when inhaled as a [[wikt:suffumigation|suffumigation]]. It was also treated by ingestion of mercury compounds.<ref>{{cite web |date=30 April 2019 |title=Sex and syphilis |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/XMF0JBEAAI--0OGQ |access-date=22 November 2023 |website=Wellcome Collection}}</ref> Once the disease had gained a strong foothold, however, the amounts and forms of mercury necessary to control its development exceeded the human body's ability to tolerate it, and the treatment became worse and more lethal than the disease. Nevertheless, medically directed [[mercury poisoning]] became widespread through the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries in Europe, North America, and India.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Mercury as an Antisyphilitic Chemotherapeutic Agent|journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine|author=G J O'Shea|year=1990 |volume=83|issue=June 1990|pages=392–395 |pmid=2199676 |pmc=1292694 |s2cid=19322310 |doi=10.1177/014107689008300619}}</ref> Mercury salts such as [[mercury (II) chloride]] were still in prominent medical use as late as 1916, and considered effective and worthwhile treatments.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=JAMA|author=P. I. Nixon|title=The Intravenous Use of Mercuric Chlorid |date=20 May 1916|volume=LXVI|issue=21|page=1622|doi=10.1001/jama.1916.25810470004018d |url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/438477}}</ref>