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
Besides controlling the experiments of feeding and inhalation, the
inoculation experiments play a still more important part, as they
furnish the correlation, necessarily, of the histological changes found
as the result of poisoning by means of lead. In all the animals which
have died of poisoning, certain definite trains of symptoms made their
appearance. These symptoms were in practically all particulars similar
to those observed in industrial lead poisoning in man, the onset of the
affection and its clinical course corresponding to the symptom-complex
in man, including those of cortical involvement, and often similar to
the classical Jacksonian variety.
Throughout these experiments the animals exhibited no signs of
irritation, and during the initial period, even, when loss of weight
was a noticeable feature, their appetites remained exceedingly good;
they were quite friendly, and purred loudly when stroked; but when
symptoms of poisoning became manifest, particularly the onset of
paralysis, a definite change in mental phenomena took place: the
animals became quarrelsome, highly apprehensive of danger without
cause, morose and lethargic by turns. At this stage, in more than
one instance, acute encephalopathy supervened. The mental change was
peculiarly striking in reference to Mott’s case, quoted on p. 71, as
in all respects it was exactly analogous with the train of symptoms
recorded in that case. To sum up, the symptoms produced in the
experimental animals by the lead compounds inoculated and respired, no
matter what the particular compound of lead experimented was, were as
follows:
1. Slight preliminary rise in weight at the commencement of the
experiment, lasting from one to two weeks.
2. Progressive loss of weight, mainly due to the disappearance of all
fat, subcutaneous, kidney, mesenteric, etc., with associated anæmia,
and the curious sunken and pinched faces commonly associated with
saturnine cachexia.
3. Paresis of various types.
In the cat the muscles first affected are those of the back and the
quadriceps extensor of the hind-limbs. The onset of the paralysis is
slow and insidious, but may be acute; as a rule weakness in the muscles
of the lumbar region and the spine are the first symptoms; secondly,
inability to jump, owing to the weakness of the quadriceps extensor,
while the animal tends to fall over when turning round quickly.
Encephalitis occurs, and is frequently fatal. As a rule the affection
is unilateral; complete loss of consciousness may occur, followed by
slow but complete recovery. The animals gave no evidence of suffering
pain, and, when recovered from an attack of encephalopathy, would at
once take milk, but seemed dazed and uncertain in their movements. When
the animals reached the stage of paralysis, they were destroyed under
anæsthetics, and subjected to post-mortem examination. The post-mortem
findings of a typical case were as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account