Document bOxnq2D7mZ87GqzmznKE6BExZ

121 Ocean Ave. Santa Monica, Calif. 90401 June 21, 1965 Robert A. Kehoe,I$.D., Kettering Laboratory, Univ. of Cincinnati, Cincinnati 19 Dear Dr Xehoe: : . . .... . . Thank you very much for your full letter of the 17th. I presumed that you were busy, or absent. I am glad that I may send further bone specimens later, when I have obtained more and better ones, to Prof. Cholak, and. that he is preserving the remainders of my samples. I trust I might send him also samples of ancient wine and olive oil, to assay for lead, if I can obtain such. I take it that the analyses were made by the spectrographic and dithizone meth ods' jointly.-.1'. .' : " ' ': " I am disappointed, of course, in reading your severe judgment on the significance of these tests. But I think they are still of some value in a statistical sense, as you mention in the 3d par. of your 2d page, for comparing the results with my indications of the individuals' vrealth, where known.-And as to dates, there seems to be much more lead shown within the ROman period, than in the few cases before and after it. I note too that most of the cases outside of Athens fall below 2.3 mg.$, suggesting, if I am right, that they had not absorbed any lead post mortem. 10 vo 00 0 cv O, O: o If a lead assay be very high (above 60 mg., or what figure would you set ?) I suppose the case should be thrown oirt, as indicating so much lead absorption after death as to leave no signif icance inthe presence of abnormal lead. A bone might show somewhat m more lead than could have come during life, and still mean that prob ably the person took in a considerable share of it before his death. I wish you could give me, or cite some good source for looking up, a few translations of the lead percentages into medical language, as what score would indicate mild, poisoning, what severe enough to reduce, or to ban reproduction, or $o entail death, and the worst found in fatal cases, i On the basis, say, of a rib, and. chronic poisoning. As to embalming, I have not heard of it in ancient times except In Egypt, but shall inquire. Answering your inquiry on p. 2, a body in a $Mlled-in well might lie cheek by bowl with a leaden bowl for 20 centuries, beneath the water level. As to the which-bone factor, since the lead was dietary I wonder if we could not assume (even,if sometimes wrongly) thfcat all the cases were ones ofgradusuL accumulation, and that a table of the bones' relative take-ups on tms assumption would provide a better estimate of the degree of leading, than to ignore this factor, which would mean to assume that all the bones take lead equally. But in ~"My problem is of course different from the modern one to which you are most accustomed, Kh&thEr where the question is: Was this man lead-pois G^lfU l a n -- K'eho, 6/21/65 any case I shall seek preferably rib specimens henceforth. Our problem is one of casuistry-- that since we are bound to fall into the sin of etTor, it is better to commit a smaller error rather than a larger one. As to finding ideal remains, I find they are not to be found, unless possibly after this acss: theory has become famous. I am glad to be corrected on my out-of-date ideas about plumbism, and should be glad of any citations of books or articles I should consults I have known of no text-book later than that of Cantarow & Trumper, 19^4. But for prastic cases of lead poisoning, reducing the birthrate, one may find more data from 40 to 70 years ago, than recently The write-up of my ideas in die & Zelt put me in touch with a German health official, conversant with Russian, who sent me two mim. translations he had made from the Russian journal Gigiena i Sanitaria (Hygiene and Sanitation): A.S.Zykova: Die Verunreinigung der atmosphrischen Luft mit Blei und ihr Einfluss auf die Gesundheit der Bevlkerung; from 1957* and D.D.Sinirnow: Ermittlung von Bleitrgerschaft bei Kindern aus der Um gebung eines Blei verarbeitenden Betriebes mit Hilfe von Rntgenauf- nahmmen; from 1962. W^th separate printed summary. I have read these, without getting much benefit in my own inquiry, but they shoudtld be valuable to someone. Should I send them to your library, or to some one in Washington ? with much thanks, and best wishes in yo u r future activities, I remain ;. 0002654