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calomel

Medical Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A mercury compound once used as a medicine and purgative. It is now obsolete because it can be toxic.

Detailed Definition
Calomel was a common 18th- and 19th-century remedy, especially as a laxative or “purge.” In modern medicine it is no longer used in this way because mercury compounds are dangerous. Austen’s joke depends on the old-fashioned medical setting and the casual mention of a treatment readers may not recognize today.
Example
Example in poetry:
“I take a good Dose / Of calomel brisk,” records an old medicinal treatment; “Calomel bitter on the tongue, the doctor’s cure,” evokes nineteenth-century medicine; Historical poems may use calomel to signal mercury-based remedies now known to be dangerous; “Grandmother’s medicine chest held calomel and fear,” lets the obsolete drug carry uneasy historical meaning
Additional Notes
The word appears in “Of calomel brisk,” and most modern readers would not know this obsolete medical substance.; Found in the poem, I've A Pain In My Head by Jane Austen
Also Known As
mercurous chloride medicinal calomel purgative healing powder
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