On Constipation and Calomel in D. H. Lawrence's Aaron's Rod (1922)

  

 

When Aaron Sisson gets the flu and is forced to sweat it out in bed for days on end, one of the unfortunate consequences is the cessation of regular bowel movements. 

 

A local quack is summoned and gives him a dose of the mineral calomel, a popular medicine made from mercury chloride often used as a purgitive to relieve constipation and to treat numerous other illnesses that negatively impact the gastrointestinal tract [1]. 

 

Usually, as in this case, the calomel was administered orally in the form of  a little blue pill, the mercury chloride being mixed with either licorice or sugar to help sweeten the experience of, essentially, being poisoned. 

 

Unfortunately, the doctor gives Aaron a rather strong dose and this causes the patient to have a rough time: "His burning, parched, poisoned inside was twisted and torn." [2]

This isn't Lawrence indulging in hyperbole for literary effect; many poor sods given calomel experienced terrible side effects, including cramping, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea (mistakenly read as signs the treatment was working). 

 

Indeed, when given in extremely high doses, calomel led to mercury poisoning, which could result in permanent deformities and even death. For example, some patients ended up with gangrene of the mouth, thanks to the mercury in the medicine causing the tissue of the cheeks and gums to rot and teeth to fall out.

 

Thankfully, with the development of safer and superior cathartics in the mid-twentieth century, it was determined that, due to its toxicity, calomel was causing more harm than good and it was removed from medical supply shelves. 

 

It is now only used in certain insecticides and fungicides ...

 

            

Notes

 

[1] Calomel first entered modern medicine in the West in the early 17th-century. By the 19th century, it was viewed as a miracle drug and used against a wide range of diseases, including syphilis, bronchitis, cholera, gout, tuberculosis, influenza, and cancer. During the 18th and early 19th centuries pharmacists used it in moderation; but by the late 1840s, it was being prescribed in heroic doses up to four times a day.

 

[2] D. H. Lawrence, Aaron's Rod, ed. Mara Kalnins, (Cambridge University Press, 1988). p. 94.