Pulmonary consumption, a nervous disease : considered as such from a practical, a clinical, and a therapeutic standpoint / by Thomas J. Mays.

Date:
1891
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pulmonary consumption, a nervous disease : considered as such from a practical, a clinical, and a therapeutic standpoint / by Thomas J. Mays. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    -65- very interesting incident which took place on board a man-of-war, in which mercury, constituting a part of the cargo, poisoned all the sailors who were exposed to its fumes. He says that those who had any predisposition to pulmonary disease suffered very much from it. Five contracted phthisis in a very short time, three of whom died. Dr. Hussmaul (Ueber Constitutionellen Mer- curialismus) states that about 50 per cent, of those engaged in mercury manufacture, die of pulmonary consumption. Lead is also well known as a nerve poison, and many practitioners are familiar with a form of phthisis which occurs among those who suffer from the injurious effects of lead. The following histories give two examples of this kind. Case i44_(Dr. Carmuset. £m Fall von Chron- ischer Bleivergiftung. Clbt. fiir Nervenheilkunde, Bd. 7, 1884, p. 69.) Male, aged 48, painter, suffered from lead cohc, tremor of tongue and hands, weakness of the muscles and unsteady gait. Tuberculosis of the lungs supervened, which finally caused his death, after which it was found that his brain contained thirty-six mgr. of lead. Case i45._(Dr. Oppenheim. Zur Pathologischen Anatomte der Bleild/wiung. Archiv. f. Psych xvi S 376. Clbt. f. Nervenheilkunde, Band 8, 1885's ) Male, aged 33, type founder, who had for twenty years been workmg in lead and in lead dust He fre- quently suffered from colic, and in 1879 became subject to weakness in the lower as well as in the