LEAD. 
§ 814-] 
There is also recorded 1 an outbreak of lead-poisoning among 150 
men of the 7th Infantry at Tione, in the Southern Tyrol. One case 
proved fatal, forty-five required treatment in hospital. The symptoms 
were pallor, a blue line in the gums, metallic taste in the mouth, a 
peculiar odour of the breath, a loaded tongue with a bluish tint, 
obstinate constipation with loss of appetite ; whilst all complained, in 
addition, of dragging of the limbs and of the muscles of the chest, and 
difficulty of breathing. In the severer cases there were tetanic spasms, 
muscular tremors, and ansesthesia of the fingers and toes. The pulse 
and temperature were normal, save in a few cases in which there were 
fever and sweats at night. In none iccis there colic , but the constipation 
was obstinate. In two of the worst cases there was strangury. Acute 
cases occur occasionally from poisoning by the carbonate of lead. Dr 
Snow recorded an instance (in 1844) of a child who had eaten a piece 
as big as a marble, ground up with oil. For three days the child 
suffered from pain in the abdomen and vomiting, and died ninety hours 
after taking the poison. In another case, in which a young man took 
from 19 to 20 gims. of lead carbonate in mistake for chalk as a remedy 
for heartburn, the symptoms of vomiting, pain in the stomach, etc., 
commenced after a few hours ; but, under treatment with magnesic 
sulphate, he recovered. 
The Chromate of Lead is still more poisonous (see art. “Chromium’’). 
§ 814. Chronic Poisoning by Lead. —Chronic poisoning by lead— 
often produced through strange and unsuspected channels, frequently an 
incident, nay, almost a necessity, of certain trades, and occasionally 
induced by a cunning criminal for the purpose of simulating natural 
disease—is of great toxicological and hygienic importance. In the 
white-lead trade it is, as might be expected, most frequently witnessed ; 
but also in all occupations which involve the daily use of lead in 
almost any shape. The chief signs of chronic poisoning are those of 
general ill-health ; the digestion is disturbed, the appetite lessened, the 
bowels obstinately confined, the skin assumes a peculiar yellowish hue, 
and sometimes the sufferer is jaundiced. The gums show a black streak 
from two to three lines in breadth, which microscopical examination 
and chemical tests alike show to be composed of sulphide of lead ; 
occasionally the teeth turn black. 2 The pulse is slow, and all secretions 
are diminished. Pregnant women have a tendency to abort. There 
are also special symptoms, one of the most prominent of which is often 
lead colic. 
In 142 cases of lead-poisoning, treated between 1852 and 1862 at 
1 Konigschmied, Centralbl. Allg. fiir Gesundheitspflege, 2. Jahrg., Heft 1. 
2 The black line soon develops ; .Masazza has seen it in a dog, exposed to the 
influence of lead, in so short a period as three days (Biforma med., 1889, Nos. 248- 
257, 1). 
