Corrosive sublimate and its introduction as an insecticide for preserving natural history specimens in the eighteenth century

By the mid-eighteenth century, the need to protect zoological and botanical collections from attacks of insects became pressing for the community of naturalists. Living ornamental and economically important plants and their seeds also needed to be protected from insects when transported by sail. John Ellis ( c.1710–1776), one of the pioneers of plant transportation, was instrumental in disseminating the knowledge of insecticidal properties of corrosive sublimate (mercury(II) chloride or mercuric chloride, HgCl2). Although the use of corrosive sublimate for the protection of zoological collections had been proposed by John Woodward (1665–1728) in 1696, it was probably not widely used by naturalists until Ellis had published his Directions for bringing over seeds in 1770, recommending this substance for the protection of living plants, seeds and specimens during transport. Ellis possibly learned about the insecticidal properties of corrosive sublimate from the emerging use of this compound to control bedbugs ( Cimex lectularius). The history of bedbug management in eighteenth-century London, and some early exterminators, including John Southall ( fl.1726–1738), George Bridges ( c.1695–1768) and Thomas Tiffin ( fl.1760–1783), are discussed. Only a few days after the Directions was printed, Ellis asked Thomas Davies ( c.1737–1812) to publish a method of preparing bird skins that involved corrosive sublimate and was probably involved in drafting it. Following these two publications, corrosive sublimate was frequently used for the preservation of natural history collections including bird skins and herbarium specimens.

Antisyphilitic Mercury Drugs in Early Modern China and Japan

Toxic mercury chloride compounds, including preparations and mixtures of corrosive sublimate (HgCl2) and calomel (Hg2Cl2), were widely used in early modern Chinese and Japanese medicine. Some of these drugs had been manufactured in East Asia for more than a thousand years, while others were produced using newer recipes developed in East Asia after the arrival of syphilis or introduced through contact with European medical knowledge. This paper traces the history of the uses and methods of production of sublimated mercury chloride drugs in early modern East Asia, showing how the Chinese doctor Chen Sicheng’s invention of the drug shengshengru (J. seiseinyū) 生生乳 in the seventeenth century exerted a strong influence over eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Japanese doctors’ treatment of syphilis. Japanese doctors’ efforts to produce and use seiseinyū provided a foundation of technical knowledge that was important for their later reception of European-style mercury chloride drugs.

Mercury(I) chloride in vivo oxidation: a thermodynamic study

Mercury (Hg) has a long history of both medicinal uses and toxic effects. Hg chlorides were used as medicines; however, ‘corrosive sublimate’ (HgCl

The poet and the poison

Mercury is not a particularly promising homicidal poison, but it is possible to dispose of someone by feeding them mercury(II) chloride provided you disguise its metallic taste. In the 1800s solutions of corrosive sublimate, as it was then called, were used as an antiseptic and as an insecticide against bedbugs, and its very availability resulted in thousands of poisonings being reported to the health authorities, although these were mainly accidents or as a result of its being taken deliberately in order to procure an abortion. Mercury was not a poison to feature in many murder cases because it was so easily detectable by the intended victims, especially if they started to vomit, which they almost always did. Then the metallic taste became particularly noticeable, and the presence of mercury could easily be confirmed by simple analytical tests. The poisoners who chose mercury had to use a large dose and this would kill within a day or two. Despite these inherent drawbacks, a few poisoners made use of it. Two of the murderers whose cases we are about to analyse opted for the large single dose approach, but the third murderer achieved her ends by targeting her victim with multiple doses. That murder became famous because of whom she killed and the political repercussions it caused. It was also notorious for the manner in which the final fatal dose of poison was administered. Mary Bateman was known as the Yorkshire Witch and she had a plan that she thought would lead her victims into taking a fatal single dose of mercury. Instead it led her to the gallows. At the time of her crime, Bateman lived in Leeds, Yorkshire, where she earned her living telling fortunes and swindling gullible clients out of their cash and possessions. She claimed to receive her supernatural information from a spirit medium, a Miss Blythe, into whose mouth she put the advice that always seemed to result in her clients handing over their money and saleable goods, with the promise that if they did as Miss Blythe said, then good luck would soon come their way, and they would be more than compensated.

GIOACCHINO TADDEI, 1792-1860

Abstract<title> SUMMARY </title>Taddei's image is linked to that branch of scientific research that was born in the first half of the nineteenth century, from the interaction of chemistry and physiology. Taddei's studies were a such and so many that it is difficult to put them into a specific branch of research. His works concerning relation of live and inanimate nature become in scientific terms the study of the interaction of organic and inorganic substances. Taddei graduated in medicine and immediately began his research in chemistry at the Accademia of Georgofili. The first works were about the composition of manure and the relation between these and the composition of soil and plants. The studies about glutin are linked to the researches on the chemical composition of foods. His work concerning wheat meal and cereals brought Taddei to discover two distinct substances, « gloiodina » and « zimoma », in the glutin. During his research on glutin and about the possibility of some mercury salts breaking the fermentation of the meals, he observed some interesting phenomena that shifted his attention to toxicology. The interest of Taddei not only about pure science but applied science too, allowed him to obtain results recognized both in Italy and in foreign countries. His researches concerning glutin led him to discover in that substance the property to operate as an antidote towards a dreadful poison: the corrosive sublimate. Taddei's glutin became the best antidote towards the corrosive sublimate after the albumen of Orfila (considered the phomoter of Toxicology). The controversy about the effectiveness of these antidotes is linked to the treatment of a very diffuse disease, syphilis. The syphilitic disease had been treated for many years with drugs containing the corrosive sublimate and the major part of the patient were poisoned by this substance.