Arsenic: A Murderous History - Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program Arsenic: A Murderous History The King of Poisons Albertus Magnus is usually accredited with the discovery of arsenic around 1250 Since the very earliest of times poisons have been used as a means for settling old scores, instruments for personal advancement, as a means to execute criminals and by those who found life to be an intolerable burden. The ancient Greeks and Romans, who could seldom agree on anything, were both masters of this practice, but, of course, they selected different agents. The most commonly used toxin in Greece was the water hemlock, a plant in the carrot family not to be confused with the evergreen conifer common in New England. Plato immortalized hemlock, which is said to be the most violently poisonous plant in the North Temperate Zone, in his description of the death of Socrates. In the rest of Europe from the time of the Roman Empire through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, arsenic was the king of poisons.

Mineral forms of arsenic were known as early as the fourth century BC, but the German scholastic Albertus Magnus is usually accredited with the discovery of the element around 1250. The first precise directions for the preparation of metallic arsenic, however, are found in the writings of Paracelsus, a physician-alchemist in the late Middle Ages who is often called the father of modern toxicology. Paracelsus, a physician-alchemist in the late Middle Ages, is often called the father of modern toxicology A Secret Weapon Dioscorides, a Greek physician in the court of the Roman Emperor Nero, described arsenic as a poison in the first century. Its ideal properties for sinister uses included its lack of color, odor or taste when mixed in food or drink and its ubiquitous distribution in nature, which made it readily available to all classes of society. Symptoms of arsenic poisoning were difficult to detect, since they could mimic food poisoning and other common disorders. There could be no doubt about arsenic's efficacy as a single large dose, which provoked violent abdominal cramping, diarrhea and vomiting, often followed by death from shock.

Arsenic could also be given as a series of smaller doses, producing a more subtle form of chronic poisoning characterized by a loss of strength, confusion and paralysis. Eventually, the arsenic of choice emerged as so-called white arsenic or arsenic trioxide (As2O3); the fatal dose was known to be an amount equivalent in size to a pea. All of the above properties of arsenic contributed to its alleged widespread use in antiquity as a homicidal agent. Doubtless it is an exaggeration, but it has been said of this period that poisonings were so common that few believed in the natural deaths of princes, kings, or cardinals. Whatever the true extent of its covert use, arsenic has engendered a body of legends so tangled that reliable sources today disagree about many of the specifics. Poison and Politics During the fourth century BC, the Romans made considerable use of poisons in politics. In this same period a conspiracy was uncovered involving a group of women who schemed to poison men whose deaths would profit them.

In 82 BC, in an attempt to stem what was becoming an epidemic of large-scale poisonings, the Roman dictator and constitutional reformer Lucius Cornelius Sulla issued the Lex Cornelia, probably the first law against poisoning. Poison and politics were also intertwined in the early Renaissance period in Italy. Records of the city councils of Florence during this period contain detailed testimony naming victims, prices and contracts, complete with dates that transactions were completed and payments made. Among the most infamous of poisoners was a woman known as Toffana who made arsenic-laced cosmetics and instructed women on their use. Another woman, known as Hieronyma Spara, organized group instruction in the homicidal uses of arsenic for a number of young married women who wanted to better their station in life by becoming wealthy young widows. Reports of death by arsenic containing cosmetics continued through the twentieth century. The Gift of the Borgias Cesare Borgias In Italy during the Middle Ages the most widely accused of poisoners were the Borgias, Pope Alexander VI, and his son, Cesare. In Italy, during the Middle Ages, the most widely accused of poisoners were the Borgias, Pope Alexander VI, and his son, Cesare.

Most say that Cesare's half-sister, Lucretia, was innocent of the Borgias's involvement in wholesale applied toxicology, but even today her name is irrevocably linked to the surreptitious use of arsenic. It was perhaps not surprising for the Borgias to specialize in dispatching bishops and cardinals. As the Pope, Alexander VI appointed cardinals who were not only allowed but encouraged to increase their personal wealth through perquisites granted by the church. The nouveau riche pillar of propriety would then be invited to one or more sumptuous meals with the Borgias. There are those who say that arsenic actually improves the taste of wine. Whether true or not, the Borgias made certain that their guest consumed as much of the doctored drink as possible. Following the inevitable and untimely death of the victim, ownership of his property - by church law - reverted to his executioners. So diligently did the Borgias apply their craft that they soon numbered among the wealthiest and most powerful men in all of Italy. Their cause was furthered by Lucretia's successful three marriages into money and station and by Cesare's position as captain-general of the papal army.

But the dynasty was finally broken in a poetic stroke of justice. On an occasion when some cardinals were scheduled later in the evening to receive the Borgia's hospitality, the Pope and Cesare returned home early and called for a bottle of wine in premature celebration. Whether by accident or design, a servant brought the wrong bottle. The Pope died, but Cesare, after having a mule slaughtered and dressed, wrapped the carcass about himself in accord with the ancient superstition that entering the body of an animal warded off the effects of poisons. His recovery seems to be the only known proof that such a remedy actually works, but he was never again to be in a position of wealth and power. The origin of the expression "the gift of the Borgias" is obscure, but it might have reflected the sarcastic wit of some unknown historian. It may be relevant that the German word "gift" means both poison and malice. More Murders and Accidents There have long been rumors to suggest that the final agonies of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1821 were due to the repeated administration of arsenic by someone in his cortege.

This tale persists despite the failure of modern science to confirm the presence of excess arsenic in hair samples from Napoleon's corpse. In his book Weird and Tragic Shores, Chauncey Loomis, a former professor of English at Dartmouth College, made a case for the homicidal arsenic poisoning of a tyrannical Arctic explorer, Charles Francis Hall. Perhaps Hall, who was born in Rochester, New Hampshire, should not have imposed his harsh discipline so indiscriminately among his crew. When Claire Booth Luce was the United States ambassador to Italy, she became a victim of arsenic poisoning because of the continual flaking of an arsenic-based paint from the embassy dining room ceiling onto her dinners. She was forced to resign her position because of ill health brought on by that exposure. Within months of each other in 1878, two women were found murdered near their homes in New Haven, Conn. One had been savagely beaten and left in a wooded area; the body of the other was found floating in the water near an amusement park. Surprisingly, autopsies in both cases found that the women had been poisoned by enormous doses of arsenic.

The tragedies and subsequent murder trials, along with a glimpse into the seamy side of the Gilded Age, are described in Arsenic Under the Elms, by Virginia A. McConnell. As recently as 1998, arsenic was implicated in a sensational mass poisoning in Japan in which four people died and 40 were hospitalized. Arsenic trioxide had been added to pots of curried beef, which were served at a village festival. The trial process is expected to go on for years; the evidence against the accused and their motive(s) is still murky. The Arsenic Eaters As documented in the mid-1800s, mountaineers of central Austria (Styria) made a habit of consuming arsenic preparations once or twice a week as a general stimulant and tonic. They became known as "arsenic eaters," and some were reputed to have adopted the practice as a means of building up a tolerance against poisoning by their enemies. The acquisition of a modest degree of tolerance has, in fact, been documented in laboratory animals, but its physiological basis is not clear.

The Decline of Sinister Uses Beginning in the eighteenth century the incidence of poisonings began to wane as improved methods for detecting them in body fluids and excrement appeared. In 1836, an English chemist named James Marsh perfected a sensitive and specific chemical test for arsenic, and poisoners thereafter had little hope of escaping detection. But even as the sinister use of arsenic decreased, certain commercial applications were found, and various forms became common in the market place. Altruistic Uses of Arsenic Arsenic compounds began to be used in agriculture as ingredients in insecticides, rat poisons, herbicides and wood preservatives, as well as pigments in paints, wallpaper and ceramics. Although the agricultural uses would be recognized later as not particularly eco-friendly - especially when in the form of the then-popular lead arsenate sprays used against larvae of the gypsy moth and the boll weevil - they were among the most efficacious of their time. Even before these applications were widely employed, however, the most altruistic of all the uses for arsenic had been launched.

Around 1900 in Frankfurt, Germany, a pharmacologist named Paul Ehrlich (not to be confused with The Population Bomb author) became preoccupied with the violently poisonous nature of arsenic. Ehrlich, however, was convinced that the toxic potential of arsenic could be harnessed and used therapeutically as a treatment for diseases such as syphilis. By chemically attaching arsenic to various carbon and hydrogen (organic) structures, he hoped to make it less accessible to binding cites on cells that produce adverse affects for humans and more specifically toxic for the infectious organisms. The search was tedious to say the least. Ehrlich patiently threaded his way through 604 different organic compounds of arsenic before he literally stumbled on number 605 to which he gave the grandiose name of Salvarsan. With brilliant insight, he even postulated that its antimicrobial activity might involve the binding of Salvarsan to sulfur groups on the microbes. As toxicologists now know, arsenic - and many other metals - are strongly attracted to sulfur; some of the sulfur in human proteins is critical to biological function.

Salvarsan became the first drug that was safe enough to be given to humans and to be truly effective against the dread spirochete bacteria that causes syphilis. It was to be replaced immediately on the discovery of penicillin, but Salvarsan deserves its place in history. A Bracing Tonic Many other organic arsenical drugs were eventually introduced for use against various bacterial or parasitic infections, but few survived the introduction of antibiotics. One of the longest-lived medicinal preparations of arsenic was a solution of one-percent potassium arsenite called Fowler's Solution. Fowler's Solution was first used as a general tonic, but many reputable dermatologists felt it had value in the treatment of psoriasis. It was still being recommended in dermatology textbooks through the 1960's, although its effects by then were recognized in scientific sources, such as Torald Sollman's pharmacology text, as "capricious, unpredictable and uncontrollable both as to good and harm." In what may be another popular myth, Charles Darwin was reputed to have self-medicated with Fowler's Solution to the detriment of his health in later life.

War Gas and Antidotes In 1940, it became known to Allied intelligence that the Germans had developed an organic blistering war gas containing arsenic, which was known by the code name of Lewisite. On contact with the skin the gas reacted with sulfur on keratin, a skin protein, to produce huge blisters that were made worse by the release of caustic hydrochloric acid, also produced by the chemical reaction. The British response to this threat was an intensive research program that culminated in the discovery of a simple sulfur-containing organic molecule which was highly effective in inactivating Lewisite on the skin, since it attracted arsenic away from biologically more important sites. This effective antidote became known by the acronym of BAL, for British Anti-Lewisite. Later it was given the generic name, dimercaprol. After the war, interest in dimercaprol continued, and in view of its low toxicity, it was tested against arsenic that had been taken internally. It was found to bind arsenic tenaciously and to hasten its excretion in the urine. It thus became the first rationally developed chelating agent - a chemical trap that sequesters and disables toxins.

It is also used in treating people with mercury and gold poisoning. Arsenic and Bedrock Even purely altruistic efforts have resulted in chaos because of arsenic. The water supplies of much of the impoverished nation of Bangledesh consisted until recently of shallow wells that were often polluted by animal and human wastes. International efforts were mounted to provide better water supplies by digging deeper wells into aquifers. Many of these wells ended up tapping water from geologic formations naturally high in arsenic. As a result, thousands of people were poisoned. Natural arsenic contamination of drinking water supplies is also a problem in New Hampshire. Roger Smith PH.D. Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology Emeritus Dartmouth Medical School. Sources The gentle art of poisoning, Meek, WJ, JAMA. 158:335-339 (1955). Toxicology, The Basic Science of Poisons, 5th ed. Klaassen, CD. Casarett and Doull, McGraw-Hill, NY, 1996. Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products, 5th ed., Gosselin, RE, Smith, RP and Hodge, HC.

, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1984. Links Death at Jamestown : Did the Jamestown colonists really die of starvation in the winter of 1609 - 1610, or were they poisoned? A pathologist argues that a common arsenic poison known as ratsbane did them in. Poisonings : Berton Roueche's true stories on poisonings were published in The New Yorker series "Annals of Medicine" from the 1940s through the 1980s. Dartmouth toxicologist Roger Smith has annotated several of these stories with technical background on the science behind the narratives. The Wallpaper Did It : An opposing view on Napoleon's death-by-arsenic from a site that explores optical illusions and other unusual science-based phenomena. Forgiving the Borgias: Daniel Rogov, a wine, restaurant and travel critic, takes the position that the Borgia's have been wrongly maligned and offers a recipe for a leek tart created in honor of Lucretia's wedding to Alfonso d'Este.

Supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Program Contact Us | Current location: home > arsenic > history.html (57/45) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. | Page updated Jul 21 2016 12:05PM Facts About Mercury (Hg) Facts About Mercury (Hg) By Agata Blaszczak-Boxe, Contributing Writer | December 18, 2014 06:06pm ET MORE Credit: Andrei Marincas | Shutterstock Mercury looks pretty, in its shiny, fast-moving liquid form, but don't touch! It can be extremely poisonous to humans. The symbol Hg that mercury is known by comes from its Greek name, hydrargyrum, which means "liquid silver" — to reflect its shiny surface. The element is also known as quicksilver for its mobility. Named after the fastest-moving planet in the solar system, mercury has been known to humanity for ages.

In fact, evidence of its use has been found in China, India and Egypt, and traces of mercury were found in 3,500-year-old Egyptian tombs. Mercury is a very toxic element. It can enter the body through an open wound or by inhaling or ingesting it. It can then cause damage to nerves, the liver and the kidney, as well as a number of other symptoms. Despite its toxic qualities, mercury can still be useful to us. The element conducts electricity and is used in electrical switches of thermostats and certain types of doze alarm-type alarm clocks, according to the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley (CNR) "The place where people probably see it most commonly is in the new light bulbs — the compact fluorescent light bulbs," where mercury vapor is one of the chemicals used, said Daniel King, an associate professor of chemistry at Drexel University. Due to its high density and compactness, mercury is also used to make thermometers, barometers and other scientific instruments, according to the Jefferson Lab . However, for safety reasons, consumer use of mercury in thermometers has become less common over the years, as digital thermometers have been introduced.

In 2008, 13 states introduced laws that limit the manufacture, sale and/or distribution of mercury fever thermometers: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Oregon, Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency reports. Just the facts Atomic number (number of protons in the nucleus): 80 Atomic symbol (on the Periodic Table of Elements): Hg Atomic weight (average mass of the atom): 200.59 Density: 13.5336 grams per cubic centimeter Phase at room temperature: Liquid Melting point: minus 37.8 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 38.83 degrees Celsius) Boiling point: 674.11 F (356.73 C) Number of isotopes (atoms of the same element with a different number of neutrons): 34. Number of stable isotopes: 7 Most common isotope: 202Hg (29.9 percent natural abundance) Extracting gold Mercury is typically found in the form of its common ore cinnabar — mercury sulfite — and can rarely be found on its own.

To extract pure mercury, the ore is ground up and heated to the temperature of about 1,076 degrees F (580 degrees Celsius) with oxygen present in the process. Mercury vapor escapes from the ores and sulfur dioxide is removed, according to CNR. The metal is condensed and washed with nitric acid to purify it, and then distilled. Mercury can form alloys with gold, silver, zinc and cadmium, which are called amalgams. Through those amalgams, mercury can be used to extract gold from rocks. When mercury comes into contact with gold, the gold dissolves into the mercury and then the two are separated, with the mercury being distilled off. Mercury also forms compounds with other elements. Interestingly, one of such compounds — mercury nitrate — played a role in the coining of the term "mad as a hatter." "Mercury was actually used in the making of hats from animal pelts," King said. In the 18th century people used the mercury nitrate compound to clean the pelts before they turned them into hats. "And they discovered that a large percentage of the people who were working with those chemicals ended up suffering from brain damage," he said.

"So the term 'mad as a hatter' actually comes from exposure to mercury." Other common mercury compounds include mercuric chloride (HgCl2) — a highly poisonous salt and that was once used as a wound disinfectant. Another example is mercurous chloride (Hg2Cl2), also known as calomel – an antiseptic used to kill bacteria, according to the Jefferson Lab.Mercuric sulfide (HgS) is used to make a red paint pigment called vermilion, and mercuric oxide (HgO) is used to make mercury batteries. Who knew? Cinnabar or vermillion was used by Paleolithic painters to decorate caves in Spain and France 30,000 years ago, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry . Alchemists used to believe that mercury could be turned into gold when combined with other metals. Mercury was the primary means of treatment for syphilis until the early 20th century. It was used in the form of pills, calomel, ointments and steam baths. The side effects of this toxic "treatment" included tooth loss, ulcerations, neurological damage and even death, according to the Harvard University Library .

Mercury is really heavy, as it weighs 13.6 times as much as the same volume of water, according to CNR. Ko-Hung, a prominent Chinese alchemist who lived in the fourth century, tried smearing mercury on people's feet as he believed that doing so would enable them to walk on water. He also placed it over a doorstep to keep thieves away and even tried combining it with raspberry juice, hoping that it would help elderly men beget children, according to the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program (SRP). Mercury constitutes just 0.5 ppm of the Earth's crust, which means that it is scarcer than uranium but more abundant than gold or silver, according to CNR. The Romans operated mercury mines as penal institutions for criminals and slaves, according to SRP. Predictably, the prisoners' life span was short due to the high likelihood of poisoning. Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. Current research Due to mercury's toxic potential, researchers keep stumbling upon ways in which the element may be harmful to humans and the environment.For example, scientists have argued about the potential toxicity of amalgam used in dental fillings that contains about 50 percent mercury.

In a review of literature published in 2005 in the journal Gesundheitswesen, researchers found that exposure to mercury in dental fillings could lead to kidney and autoimmunity problems, neurobehavioral changes and even autism. "Removal of dental amalgam leads to permanent improvement of various chronic complaints in a relevant number of patients in various trials," the authors wrote in the review. However, in another review , published in the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association, investigators came to a different conclusion, stating that: "The amount of mercury released from dental amalgam is minimal; a person would have to have 490 amalgam surfaces for there to be enough mercury vapor and ionic mercury given off from amalgam fillings to meet the maximum exposure guidelines." Upon reviewing scientific evidence, the FDA concluded that "dental amalgam fillings safe for adults and children ages 6 and above," according to the agency's website. There is also a growing body of research on methylmercury — the most toxic form of mercury — and its harmful effects on the environment and human health. People get exposed to methylmercury mainly through eating contaminated fish and seafood that pick up the toxic compound from the ocean.

Elemental mercury, the same form of mercury that can be found in thermometers, gets converted into methylmercury by ocean bacteria. "It [methylmercury] accumulates in the smaller fish that are then eaten by the bigger fish and it works its way up the food chain," in a process called bioaccumulation, King said. Methylmercury is particularly dangerous to developing embryos, which are five to 10 times more sensitive to its damaging effects on the nervous system than adults, according to the U.S. Geological Survey . Mercury gets into the oceans from multiple sources, such as air and water pollution as well as naturally occurring minerals. Much of the mercury in the North Pacific, for instance, comes from air pollution, especially power plants in Asia, according to a study published in August 2013 in the journal Nature Geoscience. In another study, published in May 2009 in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycle, researchers estimated that the levels of mercury in the North Pacific could double by 2050 if human-induced emissions continue at the current rate. Additional resources Basic Metals Element Group Properties By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.

Updated April 01, 2016. Several groups of elements can be termed metals. Here is look at the location of the metals on the periodic table and their common properties: Examples of Metals Most of the elements on the periodic table are metals, including gold, silver, platinum, mercury, uranium, aluminum, sodium and calcium. Alloys, such as brass and bronze, also are metals. Location of Metals on the Periodic Table Metals are located on the left side and the middle of the periodic table . Group IA and Group IIA (the alkali metals ) are the most active metals. The transition elements , groups IB to VIIIB, are also considered metals. The basic metals are the element to the right of the transition metals. The bottom two rows of elements beneath the body of the periodic table are the lanthanides and actinides , which are also metals. Properties of Metals Metals are shiny solids are room temperature (except mercury, which is a shiny liquid element ), with characteristic high melting points and densities.

continue reading below our video Trends in the Periodic Table Many of the properties of metals, including large atomic radius, low ionization energy , and low electronegativity , are due to the fact that the electrons in the valence shell of a metal atoms can be removed easily. One characteristic of metals is their ability to be deformed without breaking. Malleability is the ability of a metal to be hammered into shapes. Ductility is the ability of a metal to be drawn into wire. Because the valence electrons can move freely, metals are good heat conductors and electrical conductors. Summary of Common Properties Solids at room temperature (except mercury) High melting points Mercury: Element of the Ancients - Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program Mercury: Element of the Ancients The Promise of Power Intriguing because of its silver hue and liquid state at room temperature, elemental mercury was known to the ancient Greeks, Romans, Chinese and Hindus. Each civilization had its own legends about mercury, and it was used as everything from a medicine to a talisman. Mercury's chemical symbol, Hg, comes from the Greek "hydrargyrum" meaning liquid silver.

Mercury is also known as "quicksilver," a reference to its mobility. Speed and mobility were characteristics of the Roman god, Mercury, who served as a messenger to all the other gods and shared his name with the planet nearest the sun. The symbol for the planet was used by the alchemists to identify mercury before it was given its more modern chemical notation. Although mercury's mystique held the promise of power, many of the ancients also knew it to be toxic. It was in the mining of the element where mercury first became associated with human illness beginning as tremors and progressing to severe mental derangement. The largest natural source of mercury is cinnabar, its only known ore, and the richest deposits are found in Spain and Italy. This reddish mineral containing mercury and sulfur has been used as a pigment since prehistoric times. Cinnabar dating from 500 BC has been identified at a Mayan site in Guatemala, and prehistoric skulls painted with cinnabar have been found in Italy. The Romans used their mercury mines as penal institutions for criminals, slaves, and other undesirables.

The warders were among the first to recognize that there was a high likelihood that the prisoners would become poisoned and spare the keepers the need for formal executions. Mercury is primarily a neurological poison, causing tremors, extreme mood changes, and eventually loss of hearing and restricted vision. Certain forms of mercury poisoning also cause damage to the liver and kidneys. The life span of a worker in those mines was tragically brief. From Mercury to Gold? In the ancient art of alchemy, mercury, sulfur, and salt were the Earth's three principle substances. The Hindu word for alchemy is "Rasasiddhi", meaning "knowledge of mercury." Believing that mercury was at the core of all metals, alchemists supposed that gold, silver, copper, tin, lead and iron were all mixtures of mercury and other substances. While alchemists in different cultures had different beliefs, one of the central themes to European alchemy was the belief that the correct combination of mercury and other ingredients would yield riches of gold. The Roman emperor Diocletian (245-313) issued an edict in the late 3rd century calling for the destruction of all written works dealing with alchemy.

Diocletian feared that artificially created gold would debase the value of the Roman currency and allow alchemists to amass huge fortunes with which they could bribe officials and gain power. Chinese alchemist - Ko Hung False Promises of Longevity and Health The line between alchemy and medicine was not always clear. In 2nd century China, the study of mercury centered on a search for an elixir of life to confer longevity or immortality. The prominent Chinese alchemist Ko Hung, who lived in the 4th century, believed that man is what he eats, and so by eating gold he could attain perfection. Yet, he reasoned, a true believer was likely to be poor, and so it was necessary to find a substitute for the precious metal. This, in his estimation, could be accomplished by making gold from cinnabar. Ko Hung's other uses for cinnabar included smearing it on the feet to enable a person to walk on water, placing it over a doorway to ward off thieves, and combining it with raspberry juice to enable elderly men to beget children. In the era before antibiotics, sexually-transmitted diseases were deadly.

Some scholars believe that syphilis was the most critical medical problem of the first half of the 16th century. A great number of printed works dealing with syphilis first appeared at the end of the 15th century when it was known by such names as "morbus gallicius," "the French disease," "the pox," and "lues venera." In the desperate search for a cure, it was almost inevitable that various forms of mercury would be tried. Indeed, the treatment appeared to benefit some patients. While it is unclear whether mercury actually did cure syphilis (some cases of the disease resolve spontaneously), the use of mercury therapy continued into the early 20th century. Mercury and Hatters The felt hat industry has been traced to the mid-17th century in France, and it was probably introduced into England some time around 1830. A story passed down in the hat industry gives this account of how mercury came to be used in the process: In Turkey camel hair was used for felt material, and it was discovered that the felting process was speeded up if the fibers were moistened with camel urine.

It is said that in France workmen used their own urine, but one particular workman seemed consistently to produce a superior felt. This person was being treated with a mercury compound for syphilis, and an association was made between mercury treatment of the fibers and an improved felt. Danbury Hat Factory Eventually the use of solutions of mercuric nitrate was widespread in the felt industry, and mercury poisoning became endemic. Danbury, Connecticut, an important center of America's hat-making industry until men's hats went out of fashion in the 1960s, developed its own reputation for madness. Regionally, the "Danbury shakes" were a commonly recognized series of ailments. On December 1, 1941 the United States Public Health Service banned the use of mercury in the felt industry in this country. Although it has been suggested that the expression "mad as a hatter" and the character portrayed in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland may have other origins other than mercurialism among hatters, few can resist making this apocryphal analogy. Mercury in the Aquatic Food Web In nature mercury can be found in several forms. It can be converted from one form to another by natural processes.

For example, when the elemental mercury released in emissions from coal-burning power plants or waste incinerators is deposited on lakes and streams it can be converted to inorganic mercury and then to organic forms by microorganisms. Some forms of mercury are particularly potent poisons. In 1958 a unique illness began to be recognized in the area around Minamata Bay, on the Japanese island of Kyushu. Sixty-eight people died while 397 others exhibited neurological problems. The highest rate of illness was among fishermen and their families. It turned out that chemical industries around the bay had been discharging inorganic mercury wastes into the waters, where anaerobic bacteria in the detritus on the floor of the bay converted the inorganic mercury into methylmercury. The methylmercury became concentrated as it was passed along natural food webs. It found its way into fish and shellfish that were consumed by people living around the bay. Scientists estimated that biomagnification in food chains may have been as high as a millionfold. Methylmercury produces a much more devastating human illness than inorganic mercury, affecting primarily the central nervous system with many neurologic disturbances including paralysis, "tunnel vision" and blindness.

There is no effective antidote as there is for inorganic mercury salts, nor are there any truly efficacious means for hastening its excretion from the body. Unfortunately, methylmercury is also very dangerous to a developing fetus. Offspring exposed in utero, if they survive, may have an irreversible affliction resembling cerebral palsy. Experimentally, methylmercury has been shown to cause mutations in DNA as well. Since the Japanese community lived on locally caught fish, the problem was limited to a relatively small area and population, and the problem came to light quickly. While the local people were exposed to high levels, the contamination was not widespread beyond this region. Japanese officials were reluctant to publicize this incident, however, which might have prevented the occurrence of other episodes in subsequent years. A very similar poisoning, leaving 13 dead and 330 affected, took place in 1965 around Niigata, Japan, on the island of Honshu. There are a number of populations in the world that consume large amounts of mercury-contaminated fish, such as the indigenous populations of Cree and Inuit Native Americans living in the province of eastern Quebec, Canada.

Some of these communities were displaced in a huge project to develop hydroelectric power. During the James Bay project by Hydro-Québec, the rerouting of rivers and massive flooding of previously dry lands mobilized environmental mercury that had always been in the soil. Bacterial action transformed some of that pool into methylmercury, which began to accumulate in natural food chains. Freshwater fish are a dietary staple for these native populations. The provincial government has instituted hair analysis programs to monitor exposure. Methylmercury is also found in saltwater fish, again posing a dilemma to public health officials. The health benefits of even modest fish consumption are well known, particularly in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, so there is a delicate balance between achieving those benefits and the risk of too much mercury exposure. The Native American populations of Quebec consume fish primarily during the summer months, and the mercury content of their hair reflects peak concentrations during the summer and lower concentrations during the winter. In contrast, populations that depend on ocean fish as their main source of protein tend to have relatively stable elevated levels of mercury in their hair. Fortunately, limited studies in both types of consumers suggest that they are not exhibiting even the most subtle signs of poisoning. Studies of wildlife have come to different conclusions, however.

In Maine and New Hampshire there is evidence that loons have experienced reproductive and immune problems due to cumulative poisoning from eating mercury-contaminated fish. A Mass Poisoning In 1971-72, a major epidemic occurred in Iraq in which 6,530 persons were hospitalized and almost 500 died. In a well-intentioned humane response to famine, several nations shipped wheat grain intended for planting to Iraq. The seeds had been treated with a methylmercury-containing fungicide to hold down mold growth and preserve the viability of the seeds. The seeds were also dyed red to serve as a warning, and attempts were made to inform the natives of the hazards of eating the seeds directly. Unfortunately, the warnings on the bags were in Spanish, because some of the grain had originated in Mexico, and the skull and crossbones, recognized by westerners as meaning poison, meant nothing to the Iraqis. In the face of starvation many families milled the seeds directly into flour, and made and consumed the contaminated bread. There would have been no danger in eating grain grown from the treated seeds, because the subsequent crop would contain little or no methylmercury.

The population of the United States has been fortunate in avoiding mass poisonings in the past, but there was one isolated series of cases in 1970 involving a single family in Almagordo, New Mexico. The father worked in a seed store, which supplied local farmers, and he maintained a few pigs at home. He noticed a significant amount of wastage in the form of spilled seed grain at the store, and he began sweeping it up to feed to his pigs. Within a short time his pigs became obviously ill. Fearful of the loss of his investment, the father had them butchered, and he froze the meat for the use of his family. Three of them were eventually poisoned severely. Twenty-two years after this incident all surviving members of the family were carefully examined and tested. In this interim the two youngest children had died, and autopsy and toxicological findings were available from one of these. Both were left in a vegetative state until their deaths. Some recovery did occur in the older children, but the visual defects, including blindness in one and constricted visual fields in the other, did not improve. Neither parent showed signs of poisoning, although both were exposed.

Toxicological studies suggested that methylmercury, which readily crosses the blood-brain-barrier, is converted to inorganic mercury in the brain. Since inorganic mercury does not readily cross biological membranes, it is effectively trapped in the brain, but it is not clear which of the two species is responsible for the brain pathology. The use of methylmercury as a fungicide has been suspended in the United States, and since this was the only commercial use for the chemical, it is no longer manufactured in this country. It is, however, still found in the environment as a result of bacterial methylation of inorganic mercury. The Ubiquitous Thermometer Throughout the 20th-century, mercury has been useful in a number of everyday items  alkaline batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, electrical switches, scientific and medical devices and the ubiquitous thermometer. Thermometers contain the less toxic elemental form of mercury and have almost never been a safety issue in peoples' homes. However, in the 1970s and '80s, workers at the Staco thermometer plant in Poultney, Vermont, began to notice a common series of health problemsheadaches, bleeding or sore gums, upset digestive systems, and coordination problems.

Upon investigation, mercury was detected in the air of workers' homes, on their clothing and furniture, and most tragically, in the bodies of many workers and their children. This was the first time in which the children of mercury-handling workers were proven to have been affected. The plant closed in 1984. Several plant workers have since settled lawsuits with the company for undisclosed sums. Another lawsuit brought against the company by the town of Poultney and the state of Vermont was settled in September of 1991. Staco paid $289,000 to the town of Poultney for costs related to the clean-up of the town's water treatment plant. As part of a goal to eliminate mercury from medical equipment, some communities have sponsored thermometer exchanges. For example, at a one-day event in 1999, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, New Hampshire exchanged approximately 800 mercury thermometers brought in by staff for digital, non-mercury thermometers. Mercury Tragedy at Dartmouth Karen Wetterhahn, Ph.D. Mercury caused a tragic incident in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1997.

The story of Dartmouth College Chemistry professor Karen E. Wetterhahn made national headlines when mercury poisoning claimed her life at the age of 48. Wetterhahn, a specialist in toxic metals, was poisoned in her lab by a few drops of the rare, extremely toxic compound dimethylmercury which accidentally penetrated her protective glove. Dimethylmercury, a colorless liquid, is a synthetic compound used almost exclusively as a reference standard in a particular type of specialized chemical analysis. Ironically, Wetterhahn was investigating the toxic properties of another metal, cadmium, and was merely using the dimethylmercury as a reference for her instrumentation when she was poisoned. While the accidental spill occurred in August of 1996, symptoms of her mercury poisoning were not detected until six months later, at which time the illness was irreversible. Wetterhahn became suddenly ill in January of 1997 and was hospitalized. She rapidly went into a coma and died that June. As a result of her tragedy, safety standards for gloves and other protective equipment were revised, and a movement began to eliminate production and use of this most deadly form of mercury.

Article by: Julie Sloane, Science Writer Supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Program Contact Us | Current location: home > mercury > history.html (58/51) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. | Page updated Jul 26 2016 2:05PM

Question: Which element was known as the King of Metals?
Answer: Gold