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

Abstract

Mercury (Hg) has a long history of both medicinal uses and toxic effects. Hg chlorides were used as medicines; however, ‘corrosive sublimate’ (HgCl2) was also used as a violent poison in the Middle Ages. In this work, certain thermodynamic principles of reactivity were used to show that ingested aqueous calomel (Hg2Cl2) in the human stomach is almost entirely converted to HgCl2. This work opens the way to a new series of studies on poisoning cases in history.

Keywords

• calomel
• corrosive sublimate
• mercury
• napoleon