Lead colic is caused by the poison from lead. The lead may be taken into the system by many different ways, without the knowledge of the patient. Persons manufacturing paints or working in shot factories or other places where lead is used may be poisoned. Painters are very liable to lead poisoning. Persons have been poisoned by sleeping in a newly painted room, or by using certain face washes and hair dyes which contain lead, or by drinking water which has stood in lead pipes, or beer or cider which has been for some time in contact with a lead faucet, and by many accidental or intentional adulterations of food. Lead poisoning is manifested by various affections of the nervous system, such as paralysis, as of the extensor muscles of the hand, and neuralgias, of which colic, or neuralgia of the intestines, is one.

The bowels are usually constipated. The pain is sometimes dull and heavy, and sometimes sharp and cutting. It usually comes on very gradually, beginning with slight pain, and grows worse until it may beHealth, Hygiene And Physiology. 401 come very severe. There is seldom entire relief from pain, but there are periods of great increase, when the paroxysms are excruciating. If not relieved by treatment, the pain is likely to continue for days, and perhaps for weeks, and attacks will frequently occur. Persons do not die from lead colic, although they may from other effects of lead poisoning. A blue line along the gums next the teeth is usually present in these cases.

Treatment should first be given as in ordinary colic. When the pain is relieved and the bowels moved, the following prescription should be taken, which will produce a permanent cure:

Mix.

Dose: As directed.

The above is a saturated solution. Begin with five drops in a wine glass of water three times a day after meals, and increase one drop each day until the patient is taking twenty-five to thirty drops three times a day.