Editing Calomel (section)

==Medicine==
[[File:Pharmaceutical advert for "Tabloids" Livingstone Rousers. Wellcome L0074492.jpg|thumb|An advertisement from 1896 for a medicine containing calomel.]]
Calomel was a popular medicine used during the [[Victorian period]], and was widely used as a treatment for a variety of ailments during the [[American Civil War]]. The medication was available in two forms, blue pills and [[Blue mass|blue masses]].<ref name="Schroeder-Lein," /> The blue pill was an oral form of calomel containing mercury that was often mixed with a sweet substance, like licorice or sugar in order to be taken by mouth. The blue mass was a solid form of calomel in which a piece could be pinched off and administered by any one of several possible routes ({{em|e.g.}} orally, skin absorption, vapor inhalation) by a physician or other medical provider. Neither form of the medication came with a standardization of dosing. There was no way of knowing how much mercurous chloride each dose contained.<ref name="Schroeder-Lein," />

=== Uses ===
Calomel was marketed as a purgative agent to relieve congestion and constipation; however, physicians at the time had no idea what the medication's mechanism of action was. They learned how calomel worked through trial and error. It was observed that small doses of calomel acted as a [[Stimulant laxative|stimulant]], often leading to bowel movements, while larger doses caused [[sedation]].<ref name="Haller 2" /> During the 19th century, calomel was used to treat numerous illnesses and diseases like mumps, typhoid fever, and others—especially those that impact the gastrointestinal tract, such as constipation, dysentery, and vomiting.<ref name=":0" /> As mercury softened the gums, calomel was the principal constituent of teething powders until the mid-twentieth century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Swiderski |first1=Richard M. |title=Calomel in America : mercurial panacea, war, song and ghosts |date=2009 |publisher=BrownWalker Press |location=Boca Raton, FA |isbn=978-1-59942-467-5 |pages=37–9}}</ref> Babies given calomel for teething often suffered from [[acrodynia]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Kang|first1=Lydia|title=Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything|last2=Pedersen|first2=Nate|publisher=Workman Publishing|year=2017|location=New York|chapter=Chapter 1: Mercury}}</ref>

=== Side effects ===
[[File:Calomel-bem-10c.jpg|thumb|Label from a calomel and [[cinnabar]] specimen]]
[[File:Carleton Burgan (CP 1659), National Museum of Health and Medicine (3383372640).jpg|thumb|Disfigurement caused by calomel administered to treat pneumonia (1862). The calomel treatment caused an ulcer to form and spread across the patient's tongue, mouth, cheek, and eye; ultimately killing his upper [[maxilla]]. ]]
It became popular in the late 18th century to give calomel in extremely high doses, as Benjamin Rush normalized the heroic dose. This caused many patients to experience many painful and sometimes life-threatening side effects. 

Calomel, in high doses, led to [[mercury poisoning]], which had the potential to cause permanent deformities and even death. Some patients experienced [[gangrene]] of the mouth generated by the mercury in the medicine, which caused the tissue on the cheeks and gums inside the mouth to break down and die. Some patients would lose teeth, while others were left with facial deformities.<ref name="Schroeder-Lein," /> 

High doses of calomel would often lead to extreme cramping, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea; however, at the time, this was taken as a sign that the calomel was working to purge the system and rid the disease.<ref name=":0" /> Calomel was often administered as a treatment for [[dysentery]]; the effects of calomel would often worsen the severe diarrhea associated with dysentery and acted as a [[Catalysis|catalyst]] in speeding up the effects of dehydration.<ref name="Schroeder-Lein," /> 

One victim was [[Alvin Smith (brother of Joseph Smith)|Alvin Smith]], the eldest brother of [[Joseph Smith]], founder of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/environmental-toxins/beautiful-black-poison/ |title=Beautiful Black Poison |last=Schmid |first=Jennifer |publisher=[[Weston A. Price Foundation]] |access-date=2017-10-05 }}</ref> Alvin was suffering from a "[[Abdominal pain|bilious colic]]" better known as abdominal pain.

It was also used by [[Charles Darwin]] to treat his mysterious chronic gastrointestinal illness, which has recently been attributed to [[Crohn's disease]].<ref>{{cite journal |title= Darwin's illness: a final diagnosis |journal = Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London|volume = 61|issue = 1|pages = 23–9|last=Orrego |first=Fernando |publisher=[[The Royal Society Publishing]] |pmid = 17575947|year = 2007|doi = 10.1098/rsnr.2006.0160|s2cid = 5804417}}</ref>

===Discontinuation===
By the mid-19th century, some physicians had begun to question the usefulness of calomel. In 1863, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army forbade calomel from inclusion in army medical supplies, a decision that angered many practicing doctors. The use of calomel gradually died out over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although its use persisted longer in the [[Southern United States|American South]] and [[American West]].<ref name=":0" />