Memeirs of Erasmus Darwin, M.D. 3U 



(I the liver, as a pale blueish countenance and deficiency of 

 bile sometimes attend or succeed it, with consequent ana- 

 sarca; but it seems to be caused immediately by a torpor of 

 the intestine, whether this be a primary or secondary affec- 

 tion, as appears from the constipatiqn of the howels, which 

 attends it ; and is always produced in consequence of the 

 great stimulus of lead previously used either internally for a 

 length of time, or externally on a large surface. 



A delicate young girl, daughter of a dairy farmer, who 

 kept his milk in leaden cisterns, used to wipe oft' the cream 

 from the edges of the lead with her finger ; and frequently, 

 as she was fond of cream, licked it from her finger. She 

 was seized with the saturnine colic, and semi-paralytic 

 wrists, and sunk from general debility, 



A feeble woman about 40 years of age sprained her ancle, 

 and bruised her leg and thigh ; and applied by ill advice a 

 solution of lead over the whole limb, as a fomentation and 

 poultice for about a fortnight. She was then seized with 

 the colica saturnina, lost the use of her wrists, and gradu- 

 ally sunk under a general debility. 



M.M. First opium one or two grains, then a cathartic of 

 senna, jalap, and oil, as soon as th? pain is relieved. Oleum 

 ricini. Alum. Oil of almonds. A blister on the nas r el. 

 Warm bath. The stimulus of the opium, by restoring to 

 the bowel its natural irritability in this case of painful torpor, 

 assists the action of the cathartic. 



This disease is generally produced by lead absorbed by the 

 surface — for many practitioners are in the habit of giving 

 sugar of lead, (saccharum Saturni) in spitting of blood, to 

 a considerable extent, as two grains a day, and continued 

 for a fortnight without this disease being produced. The 

 makers of white lead for paint are particularly subject to this 

 disorder, and painters from not keeping the hands clean j 

 and in such case the author of these memoirs has found the 

 highest use in ordering a diet of fat bacon — the corrosive 

 sublimate (hydragyrus muriitus) in a mixture of tincture of 

 bark, an ounce, decoction of bark, six ounces, and two 

 drachms of powdered bark, with two grains of the munated 

 snercury, of which a table spoonful is to be taken night and 



U 4 morning 



