Donald Hunter

FOCAL CEREBRAL AND CEREBELLAR ATROPHY IN A HUMAN SUBJECT DUE TO ORGANIC MERCURY COMPOUNDS

Before the second world war a group of four patients suffering from profound neurological disturbances as a result of industrial exposure to methyl mercury compounds was studied by one of us. At the same time the effects of these compounds upon experimental rats and one monkey were assessed. A full account of this clinical and experimental work has been published (Hunter, Bomford, and Russell, 1940). After an interval of 15 years one of these men (Case 4) has come to necropsy. Because it has afforded the first opportunity for a detailed histological study in this form of intoxication, and because the neuropathological changes proved both unexpected and intrinsically of considerable interest, we consider the case worthy of record.