It may be argued, and we think with considerable reason, both from pathological and clinical findings, that, as muscular exertion is apparently associated with the onset of paralysis, particularly in those muscles which may be regarded as physically somewhat inadequate to the work they have to perform, and that, as the paralysis is associated with definite functional groups of muscles, and to a curious extent varies according to the trade in which the sufferer is engaged, therefore greater stress thrown upon the muscular tissue at some period or another during occupation determines the microscopical hæmorrhage in the nerve supplying the muscles, or in the muscle itself, so that the paralysis affects just such muscles as have an increased strain thrown upon them. It does not necessarily follow that the preliminary initial hæmorrhage occurring should be a large one--in fact, from the whole of the histological history, hæmorrhages are exceedingly minute; neither does it follow that it is essential for such hæmorrhages to take place in the whole length of the nerve itself; but it is only necessary that the finer branches of the nerve should have their venioles or arterioles affected, and it is of course in the finer branches particularly, as has been pointed out in relation to the venioles, that degeneration of the intima of the vessels takes place. Finally, the effect of early treatment on lead palsy tends to bear out this theory. If a case of lead palsy be treated in the early stages, the clinical course of the case is good; increased paralysis generally takes place in the first week, and, where, perhaps, only two or three fingers are involved when the case is first seen, spreads generally to other regions within a week, and the whole hand is affected; but from this moment onwards improvement takes place on the application of suitable treatment, and, if continued, almost invariably results in the entire recovery from the paresis. There is little doubt that this is the true explanation of the ordinary paresis of lead poisoning, and a very great deal more evidence is required to combat it and to prove the selective action of lead upon individual nerves, since the theory of hæmorrhage does not owe its origin to conjecture, but is based on clinical and histological examination of early cases of poisoning. In attempting to find a cause for the paralysis of the hands so commonly present in painters, it has been suggested that lead is absorbed through the skin, and affects the nerves at their junction with the muscles, setting up a peripheral neuritis [Gombault[8]]. The theory breaks down at once when such commonly-occurring affections as paralysis of the ocular muscles, paralysis of the peroneal type, paralysis of the muscles of the shoulder, etc., are considered.