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calomel

   Also found in: Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
cal·o·mel  (kl-ml, -ml)
n.
A colorless, white or brown tasteless compound, Hg2Cl2, used as a purgative and insecticide. Also called mercurous chloride.

[Probably from New Latin calomels : Greek kalos, beautiful + mels, black.]

calomel [ˈkæləˌmɛl -məl]
n
(Chemistry / Elements & Compounds) a colourless tasteless powder consisting chiefly of mercurous chloride, used medicinally, esp as a cathartic. Formula: Hg2Cl2
[perhaps from New Latin calomelas (unattested), literally: beautiful black (perhaps so named because it was originally sublimed from a black mixture of mercury and mercuric chloride), from Greek kalos beautiful + melas black]
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.calomel - a tasteless colorless powder used medicinally as a cathartic
black lotion, blackwash - a mixture of calomel and limewater that is used on syphilitic sores
atomic number 80, Hg, hydrargyrum, mercury, quicksilver - a heavy silvery toxic univalent and bivalent metallic element; the only metal that is liquid at ordinary temperatures
chloride - any compound containing a chlorine atom


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prentices and Guster, to their consternation, "if I am told by the doctor that calomel or castor-oil is good for me, I may naturally ask what is calomel, and what is castor-oil.
The latter was a feeble child, and it was only by prodigious quantities of calomel that Lady Southdown was able to keep him in life at all.
Besides,' said Bob, lowering his voice to a confidential whisper, 'they will be all the better for it; for, being nearly out of drugs, and not able to increase my account just now, I should have been obliged to give them calomel all round, and it would have been certain to have disagreed with some of them.
 
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