Re: check out these swine flu treatments

how anyone ever thought mercury was ok to use as medicine is beyond me. people used to take it orally as calomel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calomel


Safety considerations

Main article: Mercury poisoning
Mercurous chloride is toxic, although due to its low solubility in water it is generally less dangerous than its mercuric chloride counterpart. It was used in medicine as a diuretic and purgative (laxative) in the U.S. from the early 1830s through the 1860s. Calomel was also a common ingredient in teething powders in Britain up until 1954, causing widespread mercury poisoning in the form of pink disease, which at the time had a mortality rate of 1 in 10.[6] These medicinal uses were later discontinued when the compound's toxicity was discovered.
It has also found uses in cosmetics as soaps and skin lightening creams, but these preparations are now illegal to manufacture or import in many countries including U.S., Canada, Japan and Europe. A study of workers involved in the production of these preparations showed that the sodium salt of 2,3-dimercapto-1-propanesulfonic acid (DMPS) was effective in lowering the body burden of mercury and in decreasing the urinary mercury concentration to normal levels.[7]