I found it interesting, and very sad at the same time, as I was just feeling crappy this morning myself, watching on the History channel, to find that Ivan the Terrible had been mercury poisoned and that most likely the cause of the death was directly related to this.

It appears that he had a sexually transmitted disease and in the 16th century they used mercury as a cure for some diseases...So, he may have been an evil person that people remember him as, who killed his own son, but large doses of mercury which where given to him led to his behaviour to get progressively worse, where he went mad, and in the end died as a result of continued poisoning. Astonishingly large amounts of mercury where found in his body post mortem.

It never seizes to amaze me how many lives have been ruined due to mercury. And the worst thing about it, we are no longer in the 16th century!!