The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-06-30
ARSENIC POISONING AND
 RAYNAUD'S DISEASE

RAYNAUD'S DISEASE
 Seven patients with Raynauds disease were cured or greatly inc proved by treatment for chronic ar- senic poisoning, reported Dr. Arthur P. Kraetzer of New York city in the N. Y. State Medical Journal, Nov. IS, '35.
 The treatment for chronic arsenic poisoning consists in intravenous in- jections of 1 gram (about IS grains) of sodium thiosulphate twice week for several months.
 If you have Raynauds disease 1t Is not necessary for me to tell you what the symptoms are. If you haven't 1t, I'll never tell you what the symptoms are. In spite of all the interests may say or do, this is still health column. Almost any one may tell me what may not say here, but I'll go back to the mines rather than let any one tell me what I must say here.
 It seems that most of us excrete a small amount of arsenic from the body daily. Whether this arsenic represents @ normal nutritive ele- ment or chronic poisoning is difi- cult to conjecture. However, 1t is generally accepted as @ clinical working rule, that if an intravenous injection of sodium thiosulphate produces a marked increase in the amount of arsenic excreted through the kidneys, the patient is probably suffering from chronic arsenic pois- oning.
 The most prolific source of chYon- ic arsenic poisoning is the rather reckless use of enormous quantities of lead arsenic as sprays for frnits, vegetables and plants, and the inci- dental exposure of many workers to the hazard of inhaling or ingesting the arsenic day by day over long periods; also the hazard of consum- CTS of fruit or vegetables which re- tain some of the poison recently ap- piled to the growing plants or trees.
 For instance, one of the patients with Raynaud's disease excreted 0.0l8 milligrams of arsenic per 100 grams of dried material, Q negligible amount. But 24 hours after an in- jection of a gram of sodium thiosul- phate she was excreting 0.76l milli- grams, an enromous amount. She received two injections weekly of one-half gram of sodium thiosul- phate. Within less than four weeks she experienced marked improve ment and in the course of several months of desultory treatment she lost her dread of handling water as in washing dishes or washing clothes.
 Probably good many individuals suffer from various manifestations of chronic arsenic poisoning without ever learning the actual cause of their trouble. Among the conditions which may depend on too much are senic in the system are chronic ec- zema, garlic-like odor of the sweat, waxy pallor, red injected eyelids or irritation and itching of edges of lids, odd patches of tingling, numb- ness or loss of sensation in skin here and there, puzzling attacks of par- esis of one or another muscle or group of muscles, severe attacks of herpes. Any reader who has one or more of these conditions is assured of my sympathy without writing me about it: in his place I'd report the matter to my doctor and leave 1t to his judgement what to do about 1t.
 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
 Heads Down
 At the hospital where our baby was born I noticed they keep all the newborn babies in cribs or bas- sinets tipped up so that the head is lower than the feet. Why is thatp co. D.
 Answer--It is a good practice to keep all babies in that position for the first day or 50 of life, so that any fluid in the breathing passages will gravitate toward the nasophar- ynx and not down Into windpipe or lungs.
 An Old Medical Notion
 Family physician tells my wife she has ingrowing goitre, and that io- dine would aggravate the trouble; he says she will have to have an oper- ation If she doesn't get better after a complete rest (H. K. s.
 Answcr-If 1t is exopthalmic goi- tre, rest cure, much like that use ually prescribed for incipient tuber- culosis. offers the best chance of ar- resting the trouble. The notion that