Lead poisoning and lead absorption : $b The symptoms, pathology and prevention, with special reference to their industrial origin, and an account of the principal processes involving riskLegge, Thomas Morison, Sir
Science
Lead poisoning and lead absorption : $b The symptoms, pathology and prevention, with special reference to their industrial origin, and an account of the principal processes involving risk
Legge, Thomas Morison, Sir
Lead poisoning
The two following cases, in which both chemical and histological
examination has been carried out on the tissues of persons who had been
employed in occupations which rendered them exposed to absorption of
lead, and who died with symptoms directly suggestive of lead poisoning,
may be added, as they confirm the experimental results given above in
all particulars:
CASE 1.--A woman aged twenty-one, employed in a litho-transfer works,
who died after a short illness during which the chief symptoms were
headache and mental clouding.
At the post-mortem examination no pathological lesions were
discoverable with the exception of a small gland which had become
calcareous, situated near the right bronchus. The brain was injected
over the left cerebral hemisphere, but no hæmorrhages were to be seen
with the naked eye. There were no other pathological signs. A portion
of the brain showing the injection and congestion were submitted to
histological and chemical analysis. Histologically the brain tissue
was found to be normal, with the exception of slight chromatolysis of
some of the larger cells; but interspersed about the whole section
in the slides examined, but more particularly in the area of the
cortex, minute microscopical hæmorrhages were found (see Fig. 3).
Here and there these hæmorrhages were seen related to the expanded
capillaries, all of which showed considerable engorgement with blood.
The arteries and veins themselves were, in addition, considerably
distended. There was no interstitial degeneration of the neuroglia
noticed. A few patches were found which apparently represented old
hæmorrhages undergoing gradual fibroid degeneration. In no case were
the hæmorrhages of a size that could be detected by the naked eye.
Two hundred and fifty grammes of the injected area of the brain were
submitted to chemical examination by the moist process described
in the chapter on Chemical Analysis. The nitric acid filtrate from
the electrolytic deposition gave a well-marked precipitate with
sulphuretted hydrogen, which was filtered off and recognized as lead.
There was only the merest trace of iron present. By colorimetric
estimation the quantity of lead found present in the brain estimated
as Pb was 0·0143 gramme. The quantity found in 250 grammes of brain
substance examined from the injected area was 0·0041 gramme.
CASE 2.--A man who had been employed in an electrical accumulator works
for a considerable time, and who had had a history of several attacks
of lead colic and one of lead paresis affecting both hands.
The man’s work in connection with lead ceased from the time of the
paresis, but some three years subsequently he died with cerebral
hæmorrhage.
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