This gummous solution is, in the table of mercurials, reduced to the same general head with the two preparations last treated of; the mercury in this case likewise being rendered active by division from triture. Although the use of this preparation is but a late proposal, yet, since its introduction, it has been a good deal employed, and the facts which may be had with regard to it cannot be alledged to be few. That general observations, however, may, with justice, be made, numerous facts are requisite; and perhaps what can as yet be had on this subject are still an insufficient foundation for any certain conclusions. It may, however, with regard to this medicine, be confidently asserted, that the opinions upon which its superior efficacy is founded are without foundation. It is a mistake to suppose, that any peculiar affinity, or specific elective attraction, takes place betwixt mercury and vegetable mucilage. And mercury with gum, as well as in other forms, if, from triture, it be rendered sufficiently active, and if it be introduced into the system in sufficient quantity, will also excite salivation. This preparation, then, is still to be considered as, in a great measure, on the same footing with the two others already mentioned. But, united with vegetable mucilage, mercury seems to act less upon the intestines than the mercurial pill. This is probably to be referred to the viscidity of the substance with which the mercury is here combined. Vegetable gum possesses a remarkable power of sheathing and defending those parts to which it is applied against acrimony of any kind. This preparation, taken in what would seem an equal proportion with the mercurial pill, shows a less powerful action on the system, both in its effects on the excretions, and in its influence on the morbid symptoms. This diminution of action may perhaps, in some degree, be accounted for from the mercury being less readily absorbed into the system, after entering the alimentary canal, in consequence of the viscidity of the gum with which it is united. But as vegetable mucilage, when taken by itself, is observed to diminish the action of mercury, in whatever way it be introduced into the system, this effect must be principally accounted for from some other cause. Probably it depends upon the influence of the mucilage, after having entered the system, in defending the excretories against the violence of the stimulus from the mercury. This form may, upon the whole, be esteemed, although not a powerful, yet, in many cases, an useful preparation. It is chiefly preferable to other mercurials in those recent cases of _lues venerea_ where a weak preparation will answer the purpose; and where, at the same time, it seems most adviseable that the mercury should be slowly introduced into the system.