A case of methyl-alcohol amaurosis, the pathway of entrance of the poison being the lungs and the cutaneous surface / by G. E. de Schweinitz.

  • George Edmund de Schweinitz
Date:
[1901]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A case of methyl-alcohol amaurosis, the pathway of entrance of the poison being the lungs and the cutaneous surface / by G. E. de Schweinitz. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    long periods of time continuously, never more, in fact, than three or four days at a time. For two months prior to his blindness he had been daily occu- pied in shellacing and had been constantly exposed, as he expressed it to me, to the fum.es of the liquid. He had not, however, for two weeks prior to his blindness had one of his attacks of ''drunk- enness. I have already pointed out that in addition to his exposure to the fumes, he was accustomed to soak his hands and forearms in the methyl-alcohol for the purpose of getting rid of the shellac stains, and sometimes washed his face in the same liquid. Therefore we may reasonably assume that there was a gradual absorption of the poison, and it is probable that, like many other poisons, it has a cumulative action in the system and finally bursts forth with sudden force. IVVhether the attacks of blurred sight which he was accustomed to have were prodromal of the ultimate entire blindness I cannot say. He tells me that he knows of another shellacer who was obliged tO' discon- tinue his work because of disturbed vision, and who was told that he would certainly go blind unless he found some other occupation which freed him from the influence of methyl-alcohol. If this case is correctly classified as one of methyl-alcohol poison- ing, it has a very important bearing, because it demonstrates that varnishers are liable to a slow poisoning by this drug, which gradually accumulates and finally produces, with great suddenness, complete blindness, just as the drug does when it is consumed in large quan- tities in place of some other alcoholic drink. In other words, it indicates that varnishers who employ either the methyl-alcohol or the Columbian spirit, are liable to dangers similar to those wdiich surround workers in lead, in india rubber where bisulphide of carbon is em- ployed, and in dinitrobenzol. If this is the case, then it is most important that workmen should be warned of the dangers of these fumes of methyl-alcohol, and also of the dangers of washing their hands, forearms, etc., in the same liquid.
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