Mercury was used to treat infectious diseases but proved ineffective as patients either died due to the disease or mercury poisoning. Another medicine was developed to cure sexually-transmitted diseases, but it was an arsenic compound which had very fatal side effects.
PRIOR TO PENICILLIN
Treatments Used Before Penicillin
Bloodletting done by cutting the hand
Bloodletting, a method of withdrawing blood from a patient by cutting their hand or using leeches, was used to treat pneumonia. Though this method of treatment was harmful to the patient, many risked the consequences due to the lack of better treatment options.
Liquid mercury
Chemical antiseptics were another method to treat wounds. They were thought to be effective until Alexander Fleming performed research to find that they harmed human cells by damaging the body's first body of defense against disease.