Minutes of evidence and appendices. Vol. 2, Evidence received in 1902-3, together with appendices 16 to 32, and index (Being part 2 of the Final report of the Commission) / Royal Commission on Arsenical Poisoning arising from the consumption of beer and other articles of food or drink.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Arsenical Poisoning.
Date:
1903
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Minutes of evidence and appendices. Vol. 2, Evidence received in 1902-3, together with appendices 16 to 32, and index (Being part 2 of the Final report of the Commission) / Royal Commission on Arsenical Poisoning arising from the consumption of beer and other articles of food or drink. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. ROYAL COMMISSION ARSENIGAL POISONING LO Trt. Mie ET.) NINETEENTH DAY. AT WESTMINSTER PALACE HOTEL. Friday, 7th March 1902. PRESENT : The Right Hon, Lord Ketvin (Chairman). Sir WILLIAM CHURCH. | Dr. WHITELEGGE. . ' Dr. BUCHANAN (Secretary): Dr. E. S. Reynolds. Dr. Ernest 8. Reynowps, recalled ; and Examined. Dr. E. 8. as ; . Reynolds. 7 Mar. 1902, 8287. (Chairman.) We had the great benefit of evi- know of any at all. I do not think it could be dis- : ph Oe Mar. 1902. tinguished ; it is practically the same kind of pigmen- dence from you in the early part of this Inquiry, and we should like now to hear what further information continued researches of your own enable you to give ?— Since I was here last I have been looking out, of course, extremely carefully, for what has been hap- pening in the case of patients with neuritis, not only at the Poor-Law Infirmary at Crumpsall, but also among out-patients at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and I may say that I have had a great opportunity of seeing a large number of patients. As regards the arsenical symptoms, I am able to state that they have practically now all disappeared in Manchester—there are no longer any of keratosis, there are none of true arsenical neuritis, and there is no arsenical pigmentation to be seen, 8288. That is patients at the Manchester Royal In- firmary out-patient department and also at the Manches- ter Workhouse Infirmary? What you say applies to patients in both those institutions? — Yes, to the whole of the Manchester district. And I would also say that so-called “alcoholic” dilatation of the heart has also almost entirely disappeared from the Manchester district. Herpes has likewise very much diminished, and even the pigmentation which one used to so commonly associate with patients with vermin on them has much diminished. It still occurs in very dirty patients, but it has also much diminished. 8289. When it occurs in very dirty patients you do not think the pigmentation is arsenical /—-This pigmen- tation used to be supposed ito be always due, in the pauper class, to the presence of vermin, and we used to see a very great deal of it. We see some of it still, but nothing like to the same extent, which looks as though some of it, at any rate, formerly was related to arsenic. It has not all disappeared, but it has very much diminished even with those patients. 8290. Can pigmentation due to vermin be mistaken . for arsenical pigmentation ?—It is almost exactly the same to look at. 8291. By external appearance ?>—Yes. 8292. Have yon any means of distinguishing by close washing or any examination of the skin?—I do not : 4576. 1500.-~Wt. 28817.—12/03. Wy. & 8. i tation. Then in June and September of last year we did see a few cases with arsenical symptoms, but on in- quiry we always found that these were patients who had been affected during the epidemic itself. In July I saw two women who said they had not been affected during the epidemic, but the hair of both of these women, examined by Professor Dixon Mann, was shown to contain considerable quantities of arsenic, and the beer that one of them had been drinking even in September contained one-hundredth of a grain of arsenic per gallon. Of course, that is comparatively speaking nothing—a very small amount. 8293. It appeared there was arsenic in the hair ?— Yes, that was present in both of these women. 8294. We hope to have some information from you on that subject later. But first can you tell me if arsenic appears in the pigmentation? Is the substance arsenic found in the pigmented skin ?—I believe not, my Lord. It is mot arsenical. 8295. That, of course, could not be examined gene- rally except after the post-mortem ?—Not easily, but I think it has been examined, and that is not arscnical. That is really one of the ordinary skin pigments such as you get in the negro. 8296. In scurf rubbed from the skin oi pigmented patients is arsenic found ?—It is found in the scales of skin that are given off when the skin scales, as it does in many of these cases of keratosis, for instance. Arsenic has been found in the scales. 8297. Especially from the scales coming from the parts where there is pigmentation ?—Not necessarily ; no. It has been found more on the scales from the feet and the hands. On the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet there is no pigmentation, and yet the scales from these contain a considerable quantity of arsenic in arsenical cases. 8298. And the nails both of the fingers and feet ?— Those, ayain, have been found to contain arsenic. 8299. Have you any measured quantities of arsenic A