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
2. A progressive diminution in weight, progressing until the animal
exhibited definite signs of poisoning.
3. Wasting, especially of the spinal muscles (the erector spinæ and in
the lumbar region), out of proportion to the determined loss of weight;
pinched facies, with frequent exhibition of running from the eyes and
nose, even when not exposed to the action of lead dust, merely by
inoculation.
4. Various types of paralysis, particularly in the cat; the muscles of
the back and of the quadriceps extensor of the hind-legs show signs of
paralysis. In the cat the quadriceps extensor is paralyzed sooner than
the extensor communis digitorum in man. The cats show loss of power in
the hind-limbs by inability to jump. The reflexes, particularly the
knee-jerks and elbow-jerks, are first of all increased, and latterly
become lost.
The chief and main sign which was noted in the histological examination
of the animals inoculated was one of minute microscopical hæmorrhages
(this has already been referred to); these hæmorrhages were not
confined to any particular position in the body nor to any one organ.
In the animals which showed symptoms of epilepsy, occasionally
thickening of the pia mater was found, but invariably in such cases
small hæmorrhages were found immediately under the arachnoid, not
covering any great area, but apparently causing pressure upon small
areas of the cortex. In others, again, the hæmorrhages were found
lower down in the brain, and a few in the spinal cord. At times a
large amount of hæmorrhage was to be found present at the base of the
brain, spreading downwards from the medulla into the spinal canal,
but this only occurred in such animals as died with encephalopathic
symptoms. In animals which had signs of more chronic poisoning--that
is to say, gradual loss of body weight, emaciation, constipation,
contraction of the abdomen, and paresis, particularly of the hind-limbs
and the muscles of the back--hæmorrhages were found in the muscles,
liver, spleen, lung, heart, various positions in the abdomen, in the
spinal cord, in the nerve-supply of the affected muscle, and even in
the brain, none of them large enough to produce absolute destruction
of more than a very minute portion of the organ in which they were
situated.
Now, all these symptoms, and, more important still, the phenomena of
hæmorrhage, were found in all the animals which exhibited similar
symptoms, whether they were poisoned by inhalation of dusty lead
compounds or fed upon lead compounds associated with alcohol; but even
in some of the animals which were fed upon lead compounds--particularly
white lead--and which had exhibited no definite symptoms of paralysis,
or, for that matter, any symptom referable to poisoning, here and there
slight histological changes which were referable to minute hæmorrhages.
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