Etiology

This disease develops among lead-workers--or workers in lead mines, paint factories, white-lead factories, and institutions where face-powders are put up. Such poisoning may also develop among makers of wallpaper, paperhangers, drinkers of soft drinks that are charged through lead pipes, and those who eat food put up in lead-foil. The poison gains entrance into the system through the lungs, digestive organs, and skin. I have had a great many patients who had been poisoned from the use of cosmetics containing lead.

Symptoms

These patients usually show more or less anemia. The most pronounced symptoms are those of wrist drop or lead paralysis. In well-developed cases of lead poisoning there is a blue line on the gums, which often leads to the diagnosis when otherwise the physician would be in doubt. By lifting the lip and exposing the gum, there is an eighth of an inch just above the teeth that is bluish, while the rest of the gum is of a normal appearance.

Lead colic is the most common symptom of chrome lead poisoning. It is preceded by symptoms of gastric fever, beginning with indigestion and vomiting,

Treatment

Pressure on the abdomen has a tendency to relieve the colic. In severe cases physicians usually resort to morphine, hypodermically applied; but a hot bath, continued from thirty to forty minutes, and sometimes longer, will bring on relaxation and give relief. Before the patient is subjected to the bath, an enema should be administered; and if the bowels do not move, then another should be given after the hot bath. So long as the cause is not removed there can be no cure. 'The patient will have to be content with palliation--with being relieved whenever the attack comes on. Those who are working in lead will have to go out of the business, if they want to get full relief and cure. Those who work in lead should be careful to keep their hands very clean. Before eating, the hands should be cleansed with water and soap, and the nails cleaned with a knife. Every means should be adopted to keep the lead from being taken in with the food. People who have developed much poisoning should think more of their health than of their work, and get into another calling. Some people are more susceptible than others to this influence. Those who eat in such a way as to bring on an acid state of the fluids will be more susceptible than normal people to this and mercurial poisoning; in fact, there will be more of it absorbed into the system. A properly balanced bill-of-fare will be about as good a preventive as can be had. Much fruit and uncooked vegetables should be eaten daily. Salad--such as those made by combining lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers with a small bit of onion, dressed with salt, oil, and lemon juice--should be eaten with every dinner. One meal a day should be of fruit. The dinner should be meat, a combination salad, and vegetables. Bread should not be eaten more than once a day.