How George Washington died.

[Surpmil]

Mercury has an interesting medical history: IIRC about three tons of it are still put into teeth here in North America every year, despite only plutonium being a more toxic element. The idea that mixing it with powdered metals somehow reduces its toxicity is right out of some alchemist's cookbook from the 1500s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalgam_(dentistry)

And yet we continue merrily along with this Dickensian "science" today: one dentists puts them in, another takes them out with hopefully elaborate precautions for the safety of himself and the patient. https://www.ariplex.com/ama/ama_fer.htm

The supreme irony is that the first dental association in the USA specifically prohibited use of mercury fillings for their known toxicity, but they were cheaper and easier to place:

...at that point the use of dental amalgam was declared to be malpractice, and the American Society of Dental Surgeons (ASDS), the only US dental association at the time, forced all of its members to sign a pledge to abstain from using the mercury fillings.[9] This was the beginning of what is known as the first dental amalgam war.[10] The dispute ended in 1856 with the disbanding of the old association. The American Dental Association (ADA) was founded in its place in 1859, which has since then strongly defended dental amalgam from allegations of being too risky from the health standpoint.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalgam_(dentistry)

One of the ways Lewis & Clark were tracked archaeologically was by the mercury left behind in their camp latrines.

And while we're here, let's not forget the fascinating story of the Lewis & Clark air rifle!

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