Silver doesn't just have deadly effects on werewolves and
vampires. It can also do a number on humans. A rare condition,
called argyria, turns people's skins and the whites of their
eyes, a pale but definite shade of blue. And it only gets
nastier from there. Many unpleasant things have been used,
historically, as medicine. In the first century AD, if you were
asked to take silver filings for your heart, instead of being
asked to gargle with urine and sleep with the genitals of a
leopard under your pillow, you counted yourself lucky. Into the
1700s, silver continued to be in given to people to treat
conditions like epilepsy and bad breath. It was even used to
bind wounds, since it was thought to be an antiseptic. It was
during the 1700s that doctors came up with argyria, a term for a
condition associated with the ingestion of silver. At first, the
whites of the eyes became gray. Then they turned blue. The nail
beds soon followed, and eventually the entire skin turned blue.
In the past, people swallowed silver