Lead poisoning : in its acute and chronic forms : the Goulstonian Lectures, delivered in the Royal College of Physicians, March 1891 / by Thomas Oliver.

  • Thomas Oliver
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lead poisoning : in its acute and chronic forms : the Goulstonian Lectures, delivered in the Royal College of Physicians, March 1891 / by Thomas Oliver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    howels. When I saw her the colic had disappeared, but she was pale, had well marked blue line along the gums, her pulse was 80, not unduly hard; there was no cardiac bruit and no albumi- nuria. Living in the house with her two children, was a domestic servant. The maid, though frequently pressed to take the botanic beer, refused, as she did not like the taste of it. She has remained quite well, has no blue line, and is not antemic. The elder child has been living most of the time with his grand- mother, and has therefore not had many opportunities of taking the ]30tanic beer. He is not distinctly anaemic, is not consti- pated, and has only the faintest trace of a blue line on his gums. His sister, a child of over three years, has lived always at home, and since early infancy has received daily a small quantity of this beer; she is very anaemic, and has a blue line on the upper gum. This child, when I saw her, could not talk nor even walk well. Her knee jerks were absent. There was a good deal of staggering, as in locomotor ataxia, with much restlessness and fidgetiness; there was no history of colic, constipation, or of vomit- ing. Three months afterwards, this child died of convulsions, which began on the 13th of October and lasted until the 24th. The convulsions were never severe, were more of the nature of tremors, and always attended by profuse perspiration ; the mine contained a small quantity of albumen. The temperature through- out was normal, except that on the night before her death it reached 100-8. It is interesting to note, that this child had invol- untary micturition and defecation, a circumstance of interest when we know how very frequently in animals poisoned bylead,the blad- der is found empty, and is seen to contract in convulsive crises.^ The use of iiaiit^^fiSi.strongly impregnated with lead has been followed, not only by symptoms of Saturnine poisoning, but by death. A ballet girl from the Tyne tlieatre was admitted into the Newcastle Infirmary under my care, suffering from colic, headache, and amaurosis; there were retinal hiiemorrhages ; she had been using cosmetic containing lead. She recovered. ^ Rene Moreau, rempoisoii. aigii par le plomb, page 70.