From ancient time the history of
mercury has been connected with that of the medicine and chemistry.
Mercury therefore contributes to the history of science throughout times. Knowledge of
cinnabar (HgS) is traced back to ancient Assyria and Egypt, but also to China. The Greek philosophers were the initiators of theoretical science. The idea of the four elements, earth, air, water and fire, was introduced mainly by Empedocles and Aristotle in the 5th and 4th century BC. The theory encouraged the hope of transmuting
metal to
gold. The early development of practical alchemy is obscure, but some hints are given in the encyclopedia compiled by Zosimos about 300 A.D. in Alexandria. It also includes the invention of equipment such as stills, furnaces and heating
baths. Medical treatment is described by Pliny and Celsus, e.g. the use of
cinnabar in
trachoma and
venereal diseases. When the Arabs learned Greek alchemy by the Nestorians, they introduced or improved chemical equipments and new chemicals were obtained such as
sublimate (
HgCl2), different
salts,
acids, alkaline
carbonates and
metal oxides. The first recorded account of animal experimentation on the toxicity of
mercury comes from Rhazes (al-Razi) in the 9th century and in the 11th century Avicenna (Ibn Sina) had the foresight to recommend the use of
mercury only as an external remedy, and quicksilver
ointments were used by the Arabs in the treating of
skin diseases. In the medieval west scientific experiments were forbidden since the interpretation of the world order should not be changed. Greek and
Arabic medicine and alchemy were therefore authoritative and the breakthrough in scientific inventions first appeared after the introduction of the Renaissance. The Renaissance medicine included ancient medicine as well as "modern medicine", based on iatrochemistry, and this chemical approach was introduced by Paracelsus. The medicine included sulphur and
salts or
oxides of for instance
mercury,
copper,
iron,
antimony,
bismuth and lead. Most important was
mercury when the outbreak of
syphilis appeared in Europe at the end of the 15th century. The Arabian quicksilver
ointment was remembered and used for the treatment of
syphilis, but the treatment also included pills and
ointments of
sublimate and
calomel (Hg2Cl2). The breakthrough in science was the discovery of
oxygen by Priestley in the late 18th century. Priestley heated the
oxide of
mercury and examined the gas and thereafter Lavoisier recognized that combustion involves oxidation. All this led to a new understanding of respiration and furthermore established the basis of modern chemistry. The apothecaries of the 19th and 20th century showed many colourful mercurials as
calomel,
sublimate, cinnober,
oxides of
mercury and
mercury.
Calomel pills were used in acute and
chronic diseases and furthermore as a
diuretic drug before the organomercurials appeared in the 1920s.
Skin diseases were treated with
ointments or plasters of the mercurials or quicksilver.
Antiseptics were introduced by Semmelweis hand-washing with chlorinated water before deliveries in obstetrics and by Lister's
antiseptic ritual with
carbolic acid during surgical operations. Also organomercurial "
antiseptics" were used but unfortunately these agents were bacteriostatic rather than bacteriocidal and
allergic contact dermatitis has been observed. Today the problems are solved by sterilization and aseptic conditions.
Penicillin appeared in the 1940s and
chlorothiazide in 1957 and new effective agents have taken over in the treatment of diseases with mercurials.