392 LEAD POISONING. 



CHAPTER X. 



SATURNINE EPILEPSY AND PLUMBISM — LEAD-POISONING. 



Definition. — A 'peculiar disturhed condition of several animal 

 functions, chiefly those of innervation, digestion, and loco- 

 motion, consequent on the introduction into the system of 

 certain salts of lead, either through the drinldng-iuater, the 

 food, or through the pulmonary mucous membrane of such 

 animals as are exposed to the action of vapours containing 

 lead. 



Nature and Modes of Manifestation of the Abnormal Phe- 

 nomena. — In considering the diti'erent forms of lead-poisoning, 

 and the modes in which these manifest tliemselves, it is 

 well to remember that the metal itself has been differently- 

 represented as to its action on the living organism and its 

 powers of combination and change. In its pure or simple 

 metallic form it is not generally considered poisonous. The 

 compounds, however, which it forms with certain acids are 

 decidedly noxious, and may prove destructive to life. If, how- 

 ever, lead in the metallic state may with impunity be con- 

 veyed into the stomachs of horses and other animals, we are 

 also aware that in the alimentary canal it is susceptible, by the 

 action of certain acids there present, of forming compounds 

 which, from their solubility and inherent toxic character, 

 speedily find an entrance into the blood and other fluids, and 

 through these channels spread change and death through 

 every organ and tissue. 



The assemblage of morbid phenomena induced through the 

 introduction of lead in some form into the body may not 

 inappropriately be regarded as an enzootic disease, seeing that 

 the conditions favourable to inoculation with the metal are 

 largely monopolized by particular districts. 



As a sporadic affection it is encountered in various and 

 widely differing situations, wherever animals have access to 

 lead or compounds of lead, as on grazings where bullet-spray 

 from rifle-butts, or the refuse of paint-shops or manufactories 

 of materials containing lead may be found, being conveyed 

 there through mingling with town manure. 



The manner or form in which lead or its compounds, when 



