Re: The Einstein Effect

On Wed, 8 Jan 2025 14:55:59 -0000 (UTC), Don wrote:

Martin Brown wrote:

Cursitor Doom wrote:

Martin Brown wrote:
>

OTOH his alchemical interests meant breathing mercury fumes and other
noxious gasses from time to time probably didn't help either.

>
ISTR inhaling mercury fumes was a 'cure' for constipation in those
days.
Supposedly. Not terribly effective and with possible side-effects that
today would be unacceptable to say the least.

>
Not quite. Drinking a small amount as liquid metal was though and had
been used since Roman times. Possibly better than the alternatives.
>
Before antibiotics it was also used as a dangerous "cure" for syphilis.
>
https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/opinion/syphilis-and-the-

use-of-mercury

>
Calomel as mercurous chloride did slightly work for some skin
infections but soluble mercury salts are all deadly poisonous.
>
Breathing mercury fumes makes you go mad - hence the Mad Hatter's Tea
Party in Alice in Wonderland. World's largest zenith telescope in
Canada used a spinning mercury mirror (it self passivates with an oxide
coat so isn't anything like as dangerous as it sounds).
>
https://interestingengineering.com/science/largest-liquid-mirror-

telescope-earth-large-zenith

 
Many medicines are poisonous, chirally modified to make them less
potent.
 
    In drug development, enantiomeric selection to maximize clinical
    effects or mitigate drug toxicity has yielded both success and
    failure.
 
    <https://academic.oup.com/toxsci/article-abstract/110/1/4/1668162>
 
Danke,

Paracelsus told us that it's not the substance itself but the dose of it
that makes the poison and if you think about it, it's perfectly true.