Document 8VjRB19q5dbevOzkrBv2xrLVe

F ebruary 12* 1938 Dr,. M, A. B lankenhorn D irecto r - D ept. In te rn a l M edicine C incinnati General H ospital C in c in n a ti, Ohio Dear M arion:- Thanks v e ry much f o r your l e t t e r of F e b ru a ry 8 t h , w ith which I am in f u l l a g re e m en t. I am alw ays w illi n g to en co u rag e th e c u r i o s i t y o f s tu d e n ts and i n t e r n e s , and f o r t h a t re a so n I am d isposed to be v ery c h a rita b le toward th e ir req u ests f o r in fo rm a tio n on t h e i r p a t i e n t s , so lo n g a s th e re I s any u s e f u l p u rp o se s e rv e d e i t h e r on t h e i r b e h a lf o r on b e h a lf o f . the. p a t i e n t s . On the o th e r hand I f e e l v e ry deeply th a t a n a ly tic a l work in th is la b o ra to ry done a t the re u e st o f; any of the h o s p ita l s t a f f involves an exchange of in f o r m a tio n . O therw ise we assume th e: c a p a c ity of m e re ly te c h n ic a l w orkers,., I am s u r e you reco g n ize, as I do, th a t any type of la b o ra to ry se rv ic e which becomes a v a ila b le has a tendency to be ap p lied to a ll types of p a tie n ts w ithout regard to c lin ic a l d is c r im in t! on o r r e a l s c i e n t i f i c c u r i o s i t y . I have no wish to encourage th is type of work sin c e I re g a rd i t as one of the prim s t u p i d i t i e s of m e d ic a l p r a c t i c e . With re fe re n c e to f u r th e r work on m ercury* I may sa y t h a t a t th e moment my a s s o c i a t e , Mr* G holak, has been i n t e r e s t e d in th e de velopment of methods fo r ac cu rate a n a ly sis of m ercury in b io lo g ic m a te r ia l. Tills is in lin e w ith h is work on v a r io u s o th e r m e ta ls by somewhat s i m i l a r te c h n ic a l m e th o d s. To t h i s e x te n t we have n o t been a v e rs e to making c e r ta in o b s e rv a tio n s on v a rio u s types o f sp ecim en s. T here is now no f u r t h e r s p e c i f i c i n t e r e s t on b u r 'p a r t and u n le s s we s u b s e q u e n tly u n d e rta k e a s y s te m a tic in v e s t i g a t i o n of the a b so rp tio n , d is trib u tio n and e x c re tio n of m ercury, th ere is no advantage to us in the study of random sam ples. I su g g est, th e re fo re , th a t there is no p a in t in our study o f specim ens e x c e p t to th e e x t e n t t h a t w can be u s e f u l to your s t a f f in d ia g n o stic Work. I f the d ia g n o sis is in d o u b t, and I f we can su p p ly u s e f u l d a t a , vie w ill be p le a s e d to do so m erely as In te re s te d p a rtie s in the re n d itio n of e f f e c t i v e d ia g n o s tic s e r v i c e . In a l l such c a s e s we would ap p reciate very much having the p e rtin e n t c lin ic a l data fo r our pnn im m ediate and subsequent in fo rm a tio n . W a re d o in g some work a t p re s e n t w ith th e d e im a to lo g ic a l s e rv ic e on a r s e n ic . I e x p e c t bo go over our a n a l y t i c a l d a ta p ro m p tly and to attem pt to o u tlin e the g e n e ra l d ire c tio n which i t would seem m ost u s e fu l to fo llo w in subsequent work, with re fe re n c e to le a d , b s are in te r e s te d in any and a l l types of ca ses in which th e re is sound c l i n i c a l reason fo r su sp e ctin g t h a t le a d may be a f a c t o r * Our knowledge o f th e norm al fin d in g s is adequate fo r our p re se n t purposes and thus we a re n o t i n t e r e s t e d in th e s tu d y o f random sam ples from p a tie n ts of a l l ty p es. However, in th i3 in stan ce I have n o t "been u n w illin g t o a n a ly s e .sam p les s u p p lie d on vague c l i n i c a l s u s p ic io n s , p ro v id e d th e sam ples had been obtained with the precautions necessary to avoid contam ination* In a few in sta n c e s I have d isco u rag ed th e c o l l e c t i o n of sam ples whore my c o n v e rs a tio n w ith the house s ta f f in d icated th a t no u se fu l purpose could be served thereby, b u t in g en eral I have been qu ite w illi n g h e re to s a t i s f y a s u s p ic io n even though in my opinion i t seemed s c a rc e ly j u s t i f i e d . I hope t h i s makes a y `a t t i t u d e q u ite c le a r and I a ls o hope th a t n e ith e r you nor your colleagues w ill f e e l any h e s ita tio n in c a llin g upon us when we can be of s e r v ic e to you;* Very tr u ly yours, RAK: i s R o b e rt A. E ehoe, M.D* KE 0020082