As late as the Civil War, the only difference between a medicine and a poison was the dosage. By Ted Maguder

Date published: 7/8/2006

This is the first article in an occasional series about Civil War medicine.

IT IS SAID that President Lincoln suffered from the side effects of the cure for constipation, a mineral called calomel. It was often mixed with chalk and called "blue mass." Commonly utilized to treat soldiers from both sides for the symptoms of a diet rich in fried foods, it became a deadly neurotoxin when converted into mercuric chloride.

President Lincoln probably took it as a pill prepared by mortar and pestle. Traditionally for pill form, calomel was mixed with liquorice root, rosewater, rose petals, honey and sugar. A research paper in 2001 indicated that Lincoln recognized signs of nervousness and depression and stopped taking the tablets in 1861.

Calomel was a strong cathartic or purgative, cleansing the stomach and bowels. However, used habitually, it affected the nervous system, causing trembling, nervousness, drooling, vomiting and salivating. And in extreme cases, this may have been followed by blindness, convulsions and eventually death.

Eventually in 1862, the surgeon general of Union forces, William Hammond, prohibited it from the supply table. He eventually was forced from his position by older physicians not supportive of his views and brusque personality.

Mercury has long been utilized as a medicine. But as late as the Civil War, the only difference between a medicine and a poison was the dosage. Civil War medical literature lists mercury as a cure-all. It was utilized to treat syphilis, gonorrhea, skin lesions, rheumatism, all kinds of bowel complaints including dysentery, symptoms of malaria, and yellow fever. It was distributed as a powder, ointment, blue pill, and liquid. Many physicians of the time swore by it as a cure-all.

The "mad hatter" of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" referred to factory workers who applied mercury preservative to cloth and fur in England's hat industry. From 1932 to 1968, some 27 tons of waste mercury were dumped into Minamata Bay, Japan. More than 3,000 residents were afflicted with the crippling effects of Minamata disease. Today, inorganic mercury is utilized in the preparation of amalgams for dental repair of cavities and silvering of mirrors. Mercury vapor and methyl mercury are to be strictly avoided.

Interestingly, author Louisa May Alcott suffered from typhoid and wrote about her mercury treatment and poisoning in "Hospital Sketches." One of the most popular newspapers during the Civil War was the New York Sun Mercury. Despite the fact that disease killed twice as many soldiers than combat, the fulminate of mercury used in percussion caps for Civil War rifles and muskets led to many of the 620,000 casualties of the Civil War.

TED MAGUDER is the division dean of natural sciences and mathematics on the Woodbridge campus of Northern Virginia Community College and a volunteer with the National Park Service at Manassas National battlefield Park. He holds degrees in the biological sciences from Fairfield University, St. John's University, N.Y., and the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse, N.Y.

Date published: 7/8/2006