Due to the idiosyncratic nature of mercury toxicity, the risk of severe disease and sudden death are unpredictable and frequently show no warning signs. Physicians during the 20th century believed that a fever/rash complex suggested the risk of severe side effects for the next upcoming doses if treatment was not halted. Warkany and Hubbard (1953) noted in their seminal paper establishing mercury as the cause of infantile acrodynia that "... in modern times the capricious behavior of<unk> s has been rather disturbing to those who use them frequently. Thousands of injections are given without untoward effects but occasionally a therapeutic dose results in sudden death. Only rarely is this caused by the first dose. More often the patient tolerates several - in one case 164 - doses before the fatal reaction occurs. The mechanism of these reactions is not clear: they can neither be explained nor predicted; yet they cannot be denied." After finding associations between<unk> s and<unk> " nephrotic syndrome, in addition to the sharp decline in infantile acrodynia cases after the late 1950s following the removal of many sources of childhood mercury exposure, the dangers of<unk> s were realized. This led to the discontinuation of<unk> s in favor of far less toxic and far more effective diuretics. This is similar to the fashion in which penicillin quickly replaced arsenic and mercury as the main antibiotic used in the treatment of syphilis for both children and adults.
Mercurial diuretic
Potassium binder
Salt substitute
Diuretic
Calcium channel blocker
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug
Carbonic anhydrase inhibitor
Peripherally selective drug