Abstract
Kazda 1 has reported three clinical cases of gangrene of the feet in relatively young typesetters. These he believes to be the first clinical observations of lead gangrene. Similar experimental results have been obtained by us in guinea pigs which have received large amounts of white lead by mouth. In this animal there can be produced a dry gangrene of the ears. The extreme margin of the pinna becomes slightly shrunken with a hyperemic zone proximal to the border. The margin to a varying depth becomes necrotic, drys down and is finally cast off, leaving an irregular margin which is somewhat thickened. The condition is usually bilaterally symmetrical. This result has been obtained only in those animals which have received an unusually large amount of lead, such as is made possible by the method described in the preceding communication. That it has not been observed hitherto is apparently due to the fact that it has been impossible to administer a sufficient amount of lead without killing the animal through lead convulsions. The induction of a partial immunity makes this possible.
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