In all instances of water-borne lead poisoning the amount of lead present in the water was small; but as such lead would not be removed by boiling, the amount of water consumed per person from the contaminated source was probably large. As the signs of poisoning did not appear until a considerable time had elapsed, a much larger quantity of lead was probably absorbed than would appear from the simple statement that the water contained ¹⁄₁₀ grain per gallon. A number of cases have been reported from use of diachylon as an abortifacient, and the symptoms in these cases are invariably those which occur in other severe forms of poisoning such as are met with in industrial processes. In nearly every case colic was the first symptom, followed later by paresis of various types--amaurosis, albuminuria, albuminuric retinitis, melancholia, encephalopathy--and not a few of the persons succumbed. In most of the reported cases abortion was produced, but in some, particularly in one[10], three dozen pills containing diachylon were taken in a month, producing acute lead poisoning, colic, and paresis, but not abortion. In fifteen recorded cases of the use of diachylon, fourteen showed a lead line, in many cases distinct and broad. This point has considerable interest, as such a line cannot have been produced by oral contact. The drug in the form of pills would be rapidly swallowed, and little opportunity afforded for particles to remain in the mouth. Its presence, therefore, suggests excretion from circulating blood of lead which has been absorbed in the intestine. The blue line will be referred to again later (see p. 122).