ANTIDOTE TO MERCURY AND LEAD.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3014, 12 October 1878, Page 4

ANTIDOTE TO MERCURY AND LEAD.

A prize of £400, founded in Belgium by Dr ftuinard, to* reward any discovery tending materially to improve the.material or intellectual condition of the working classes,, has, by the jury! been unanimously awarded to M. Melsena, a member of the Belgian Academy.,. M, .Melsens has discovered a method to counteract the poisonous effects produced either by emanationfe or by absorption of poisonous metalspor,!Tatber;:to prevent their deleterious effects V; The agent he employs is iodide of potassium. Affection* of this kind depend on the presence in the'organs whichikresSHe .leat'bf-th^ ***$# bf insoluble metallic-coinjpduhds^^iodide of potassium converts them into soluble metallic compounds, and' expels them. For a loDg:time iodide 'of'potassium'ihas been considered as a, tru? Melsens b^gapt by proving that'the <arug is inoffensive, on the essential condition of its being -perfectly pure, and being administered in doses, at first small, and gradually/ increasing. .The administration o£*vefy slfong doses to persons poisoned would produce in the system a quanlity^of; double 'salt,' sufficiently large when drawninto the circulation'to"causerealordinarypoisoning. The insoluble com|ounds^p^mercury, as as tadse.fof' lead, s easily transformed into soluble compounds "by means of the. alkaline' iodides, these: soluble bodies are eliminated "by; the" secretions of the body. The sulphate of—lead, which is bufi little soluble in water, is, however, a' poison fatal to. animals, and it is as dan- . gerous to handle as tlie carbonate of lead, and all the other insoluble componhds of this metal. All these bodies are eliminated by tbe action of iodide of potassium, which frees the system of them and prevents their deposit in the organs, vrhen administered in suitable doses. M. Melsens has obtained a Mont yon prize from the French Institute for the same' dis-

covery.—Times.