I have had recently under my care four fresh cases of the very definite condition which I described1 as “ocularneuritis, simulating basal meningitis-plumbism.” The appearance of so many cases at the same time, all of them fairly severe ones, though fortunately not of very long standing, and all of them cases which, in my opinion, would have suffered from permanent blindness unless removed from their surroundings, and possibly also unless treated, again called my attention to the question of source. Although efforts to discover the source of the lead poisoning have hitherto been unsuccessful it has been apparent to those of us interested in the question that the source of the lead is available to almost all Queensland children who live in towns, and certainly to all the children of an affected family, even although one only showed symptoms of poisoning. We2 explained the fact that one member of a family is often selected and the others are apparently unaffected, by the fair assumption that the lead was injected in very small quantities only, and that only children idiosyncratic to lead showed symptoms of poisoning. We pointed out, however, that often other children of a household showed a blue line on the gums, indicating the presence of lead circulating in the blood, but not in sufficient quantity to cause the distinctive poisonous symptoms.

It is known that lead when it gains entrance to the body is very slowly excreted by the kidneys, and in some undoubted cases of lead poisoning the Government Analyst has failed to find it in the urine, while finding it in other cases exhibiting absolutely identical symptoms. This lent colour to the belief that defective excretion in some children was a reason for their selection as those showing poisonous symptoms. I hope to-night to furnish a better explanation than idiosyncrasy for the selection in a family of victims to lead, and also to get rid of the idea that only small quantities are ingested. Shortly, I am able, I believe, and advance a very strong plea for painted walls and railings as the source of the lead, and for the biting of fingernails or sucking of fingers, as in a majority of cases, the means of conveyance of the lead to the patient. My own personal experience is now, of course, confined to the cases exhibiting eye symptoms unaccompanied by other paralytic symptoms; but I am quite satisfied that except in isolated cases the source of the poison is the same in all Queensland children affected. It is possible that some of you have long recognized paint as a source. To my shame, I cannot remember to have done so, discussed as a source, or even seriously stated to be one. Mr. Henderson, the Government Analyst, says that he suggested it, but that the idea was pooh-poohed.