As mercury softened the gums, calomel was the principal constituent of teething powders until the mid-twentieth century. Babies given calomel for teething often suffered from acrodynia. It became popular in the late 18th century to give calomel in extremely high doses, as Benjamin Rush normalized the heroic dose. This caused many patients to experience many painful and sometimes life-threatening side effects. Calomel, in high doses, led to mercury poisoning, which had the potential to cause permanent deformities and even death. Some patients experienced gangrene of the mouth generated by the mercury in the medicine, which caused the tissue on the cheeks and gums inside the mouth to break down and die. Some patients would lose teeth, while others were left with facial deformities. High doses of calomel would often lead to extreme cramping, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea, however, at the time, this was taken as a sign that the calomel was working to purge the system and rid the disease. Calomel was often administered as a treatment for dysentery; the effects of calomel would often worsen the severe diarrhea associated with dysentery and acted as a catalyst in speeding up the effects of dehydration. One victim was Alvin Smith, the eldest brother of Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.. It was also used by Charles Darwin to treat the severe gastrointestinal infection that presumably began the inductive phase of his documented Crohn's disease.. Eventually, it was determined that calomel was causing more harm than good, as the side effects were often worse than the illness it was being used to treat; because of this, calomel was removed from medical supply shelves.