§ 8 ll.] LEAD. 635 
of the employees suffer from poisoning that it has excited more than 
once the attention of the Government . 1 
Lead, again, has been found by the analyst in most of the ordinary 
foods, such as flour, bread, beer, cider, wines, spirits, tea, vinegar, sugar, 
confectionery, etc., as well as in numerous drugs, especially those manu¬ 
factured by the aid of sulphuric acid (the latter nearly always containing 
lead), and those salts or chemical products which (like citric and tartaric 
acids) are crystallised in leaden pans. Hence it follows that in almost 
everything eaten or drunk the analyst, as a matter of routine, tests for 
lead. The channels through which it may enter into the system are, 
however, so perfectly familiar to practical chemists, that a few unusual 
instances of lead-poisoning only need be quoted here. 
A cabman suffered from lead colic, traced to his taking the first glass 
of beer every morning at a certain public-house ; the beer standing in the 
pipes all night, as proved by analysis, was strongly impregnated 
with lead . 2 
The employment of red lead for repairing the joints of steam-pipes 
has before now caused poisonous symptoms from volatilisation of lead . 3 
The use of old painted wood in a baker’s oven, and subsequent adherence 
of the oxide of lead to the outside of the loaves, has caused the illness 
of sixty-six people . 4 
1 A departmental committee, appointed to inquire into the white lead and allied 
industries, in a report presented to the Home Secretary stated :— 
“ 8. (a) It is known that if lead (in any form), even in what may be called in¬ 
finitesimal quantities, gains entrance into the system for a lengthened period, by 
such channels as the stomach, by swallowing lead dust in the saliva, or through the 
medium of food and drink ; by the respiratory organs, as by the inhalation of dust ; 
or through the skin ; there is developed a series of symptoms, the most frequent of 
which is colic. Nearly all the individuals engaged in factories where lead or its 
compounds are manipulated look pale, and it is this bloodlessness and the presence 
of a blue line along the margin of the gums, close to the teeth, that herald the other 
symptoms of plumbism. (6) A form of paralysis known as wrist-drop or lead-palsy 
occasionally affects the hands of the operatives. There is, in addition, a form of 
acute lead-poisoning, most frequently met with in young girls from 18 to 24 years of 
age, which is suddenly developed and is extremely fatal. In it the first complaint is 
headache, followed sooner or later by convulsions and unconsciousness. Death often 
terminates such a case within three days. In some cases of recovery from convulsions 
total blindness remains. 
“ 9. There has been considerable doubt as to the channels by which the poison 
enters the system. The committee have taken much evidence on this subject, and 
have arrived at the conclusion (a) that carbonate of lead may be absorbed through the 
pores of the skin, and that the chance of this is much increased during perspiration 
and where there is any friction between the skin and the clothing ; (6) that minute 
portions of lead are carried by the hands, under and round the nails, etc., on to the 
food, and so into the stomach ; (c) but that the most usual manner is by the inhala¬ 
tion of lead dust. Some of this becomes dissolved in the alkaline secretions of the 
mouth, and is swallowed by the saliva, thus finding its way to the stomach. Other 
particles of dust are carried to the lungs, where they are rendered soluble and absorbed 
by the blood.”— Report of Chief Inspector of Factories for 1893. 
2 Chem. News. 3 Eulenberg, op. cit., p. 708. 
4 Annales d' Hygiene, 1877, 307. 
