Ujihiro Murakami

The Effect of Organic Mercury on Intrauterine Life

The Minamata disease originates from the consumption of great amounts of fish and shellfish caught in the Minamata Bay, the Kumamoto Prefecture of Kyushu, Japan (Figure 1). The water system of the Minamata Bay has been polluted by methyl mercuric sulfide (CH3HgSCH3) and methyl mercuric chloride (CH3HgCl) through waste water discharged into the Minamata River by a vinylchloride and acetaldehyde plant (Figure 2).

Experimental Embryologic and Pathologic Study on Malformation of the Central Nervous System

It has been said that among victims of hereditary diseases of the nervous system and their relatives some common abnormalities, such as various conditions belonging to <‘ status dysraphicus ,’ are seen(2)*(11). The present author has been continuing KATSUNUMA’S* study on experimental teratology, especially that of anencephaly with the observation of various malformed conditions which were usually believed to have been caused by incomplete closure of the neural tube. Especially, in some experiments(12)* (20), many pseudencephalias which were thought to be the early stage of anencephalias were observed. A study on the pathogenesis of maldevelopments believed to be caused by “ incomplete closures of the neural tube ” were therefore planned.