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
Lead is peculiarly a cumulative poison, and post-mortem analyses of
viscera show that it may be stored up in certain parts of the body,
more especially in the bone and red bone marrow and brain, and to some
extent in the liver, spleen, and kidneys. Any circumstance, therefore,
that temporarily interferes with the ordinary channels through which
lead is excreted may determine the presence of a much larger quantity
than usual of the metal in circulation in the body; and if in addition
an increased quantity of the poison be inhaled, more or less acute
symptoms follow. The localization of the deposit of lead is therefore
of some importance.
Meillère and Richer[4] give an analysis of various organs of the
body, but their results are not in accord with the majority of other
observers. They found that the hair particularly contains a large
quantity of lead. They do not seem to have examined the bones. Next to
the hair, the liver seems to have contained the largest amount. Wynter
Blyth[5] found 117·1 milligrammes of lead in the brain of a person who
died of encephalopathy. In another case he found 0·6 gramme in the
liver, 0·003 in the kidney, and 0·072 in the brain. Hougounencq[6]
examined the organs of a person who died from lead poisoning, and found
the largest amount of lead in the large intestine.
Large intestine 0·2150 gramme.
Small intestine 0·0430 „
Liver 0·0050 „
Brain 0·0008 „
In the lung, stomach, kidney, and heart, only traces were found.
Dixon Mann[7] describes some experiments in which potassium iodide
was given in cases of chronic poisoning, and during the whole of the
experiments the fæces and urine were analyzed three times a week.
He found by this means that a considerable amount of lead was being
eliminated by the intestine. He therefore administered 2 grammes of
lead acetate three times a day for five days to a patient, and he found
that the fæces contained 0·1762 gramme the first day, 0·17411 gramme
the second day; the fourth day it had fallen to 0·0053 gramme, and on
the sixth day to 0·0006 gramme. The largest amount at any one time in
a day obtained from the urine was only just over 0·001 gramme; the
average amount found in the case of chronic poisoning was about 3
milligrammes, whereas the greatest amount at any one time in the urine
was only 0·9 milligramme.
The quantity of lead present in the brain necessary to determine
acute poisoning is not known, and it is probable that an extremely
minute quantity will produce very serious effects; and in support of
this may be quoted a number of observations in which search has been
made for the metal in persons who have died of diseases affecting the
brain associated with other symptoms of poisoning, and yet post-mortem
examination of the brain by chemical methods has not revealed the
presence of any lead whatever. In the case reported by Mott (see p.
71), no lead at all was recognized in the brain.
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