The small blue pills that sent Abraham Lincoln in to a rage

By Heidi Blake 730AM GMT twenty-three March 2010

The 16th United States President Abraham Lincoln Photo GETTY

The 16th President of the United States took the pills in the 1850s to assuage what one � la mode described as the "cave of gloom" in that he lived.

But researchers who analysed a not long ago unearthed representation of the disinfectant detected it contained up to 120 times the excusable every day money coming in of mercury.

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Scientists at the Royal Society of Chemistry, where the tests were carried out, hold the high mercury calm in the pills is what caused Lincolns important written and earthy rages.

On one arise the President became so angry that he grabbed a former help and shook him "until his teeth chattered".

One � la mode report his face in annoy as "lurid with stately and terrifying wrath".

Blue Mass pills were used at large and mostly ineffectually in the 19th Century as a heal for ailments together with toothache, constipation, birth heedfulness and depression.

Mercury is rarely poisonous, and symptoms of toxicity embody nausea, vomiting, dehydration and scour a well as a aroused temper.

Lincoln motionless to desert the pills at the opening of the American Civil War in 1861 since they "made him cross".

He became eminent during the dispute for his patience underneath pressure.