Collected papers on pharmacology and therapeutics.

  • Phillips, Charles D. F. (Charles Douglas Fergusson), 1830-1904.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Collected papers on pharmacology and therapeutics. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    93/288 (page 81)
    CHRONIC LEAD POISONING. Chronic lead poisoning is so common a complaint, is the bane of so many trades and occupations, is so widespread, and produces such disastrous effects on almost every organ of the body, that no apology need be offered for dealing with the sub- ject from the point of view of the pharmacologist. Workers in lead, such as compositors, plumbers and painters, absorb the metal in part by the skin, in part by the lungs, and sometimes from eating with unwashed hands directly after food. In- jurious effects are not uncommon from the ap- plication of cosmetics and dyes containing lead to the skin and hair. Once introduced into the system lead remains for a long time, in small quantities at least, and may be deposited in almost every organ of the body. It passes through the placenta to the foetus, and has been found, not only in the blood and the liver, spleen and kidney, but also in the muscles, bones, and nervous system. In two cases of lead poisoning which occurred at a lead factory in the east of London, the brain contained large quan- tities of lead, in one of them as much as 117*1 milligrammes of the sulphate. This may account