Evening star., 1925-05-06
TETRAETHYL LEADS
DANGERS ARE TOLD
BY DOCTORS HERE

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Continued from First Page1
contact with it. In the New Jersey
laboratories 1t was handled under all
possible precautions, the workers
there wearing rubber clothes, rubber
gloves. rubber caps and shoes and
even rubber face protectors. Yet the
lead seeped into their system in
sufficient quantities to make them
dangerously ILL.,
"Its effect" he said, lis different
from anything / have ever seen my
self or ever heard described. 1t acts
mostly like delirium tremens. but il
affects different individuals differently.
Some cases are violently hopeless.
others moderately severe and a few
only serious enough to cause nausea
or other effects that usually pass off
comparatively quickly. Ordinarily
however, the moderate cases are in
the ma jority.
Patients Recovering.
In these moderate cases the effect
is usually about the same. The
patient seldom realizes he has been
poisoned. He is first attacked with a
slight nausea. Then he complains of
pains in the head chest or abdomen.
Insomnia follows and If the suffered
can sleep at all he is attacked by
distressing dreams. he develops an
Unsuitable thirst and finally becomes
too tired and weak to work or care
much about anything.
Most of these patients are now
gradually improving and ] believe
they will eventually completely re-
hnfinN-n e,
manufacture of tetraethyl should be
permanently abandoned and that the
industries should find other substi-
tutes which would give the same eff
feet on gasoline engines but would
not hold such dangerous possibilities
to human beings"
Another physician attending the
meeting described the fancies Of one
of his own patients who had been
poisoned by tetraethyl lead and ex-
pressed the belief that he would never
again recover his normal faculties.
He has improved to a point of com
paratively passive insanity, although
he still suffers from the most acute
hallucinations and up to the present
time has shown no signs of overcom-
ing them.
Has HalIucinations.
"He will stand talking to the
calendar on his wall by the hour,
thinking it is his mother" the doctor
said. He often imagines he hears
the voice of God and on occasions will
strike violently at a vase or pedestal
under the hallucination that il is a
man trying to attack him. He is
possessed of suicidal tendencies and
cannot be left alone near an open
window. / doubt if he will ever be-
come a normally minded person
again"
The annual meeting of the Congress
of American Physicians and Surgeons
divided this morning into sectional
gatherings. comprised of a dozen or
more different medical associations or
societies. This afternoon these So
cieties will combine in a general meet
ing of the congress in the Hall of
Nations at the Washington Hotel.
DR.. William ]. Mayo, the prominent
Rochester specialist. who is president
of the congress, will preside.
20 as Average Life.
In his annual address at the open
ing session of the congress last night
DR.. Mayo declared that medical
science, having heightened mans span
of life Il years since the Civil War,
has now set the ripe age of 70 years
as the average human life. At pres
ent ii is SIS, but DIR. Mayo feels con-
fident medicine and science combined
will achieve the goal.
DR.. Mayo asserted that the old ele-
ment of uncertainty, and pure guess
work that was associated with sur
gerry has been largely eliminated. Now
the surgeon can estimate astonish-
ingIy close the amount of shock his
patient can bear, and as result he
can help prepare the patient to endure
the ordeal better. Methods employed
by surgeons today, he said, are pre-
else"
Fatalities Are Cut.
"Not many years ago. DR.. Mayo
continued, between 10 and % per
cent of the patients who underwent
operations for cancer of the stomach
died from the operation, but today
fatalities from this surgery are less
than 8 per cent" The noted surgeon
laid particular stress upon the ad-
yances that have been made through
the cooperation between science and
medicine.
Science discovered, he said, that
water, sugar and salt injected into
a mans veins will do much tempo
rarilv to sustain life. AS a result, the
surgeon has new and almost certain
method of not only preparing his
patient for an operation. but also of
assisting him in the task of rehabilita-
tion afterwards. Rehabilitation" the
sneaker added, "is to become a master
word in medicine.