Merry Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 330

Arsenic

The young man was so focussed on painting Christmas cards that he neglected to wash the copper hydrogen arsenite from under his nails before eating and often put the paintbrush in his mouth. At the time most green colours contained arsenic.

He was treated with sinapism (a mustard plaster), linseed poultices (as hot as could be borne). Tincture of opium for the diarrhoea, and half an ounce of brandy (it was Christmas after all). His condition improved the next day.

Karl Adolph von Basedow (1799 – 1854) first presented proof (1844, 1846) of the poisonous effect of wallpapers printed with the paint colour ‘Schweinfurther Grün‘ (Parisian green) and Scheelesgrün in ‘Arsenikdunst in Wohnzimmern‘ [Arsenic fumes in living rooms 1846;52(1):89].

In 1848, Basedow found that glue-bound Schweinfurter green releases organic arsenic compounds leading to arsenic vapours filling the confined spaces of living rooms. This was later (1935) deemed to be the production of trimethyl-arsine from fungus (Penicillium brevicaule)

References

• Basedow KA. Beobachtungen über die gesundheitsnachteiligen Ausdunstungen der zimmerfaden aus arsenikaurem Kupferoxyd. Wochenschrift für die gesammte Heilkunde. 1848;27:417-429 [Schweinfurther Grün]
• Farrar J. Case of Acute Arsenical Poisoning from the Use of Green Paint. Br Med J. 1877 Jan 6;1(836):8. 
• Challenger F, Higginbottom C. The production of trimethylarsine by Penicillium brevicaule (Scopulariopsis brevicaulis). Biochem J. 1935; 29(7): 1757–1778

Christmas Tree Cataract or CTC for short.

This anterior segment photograph (Natung et al) of left eye (by slit lamp) shows highly refractive, multi-coloured, iridescent crystals in the inferior cortex and nucleus of the crystalline lens.

The colours change with the angle of the light giving a colourful display. Its cause is largely unknown, hypotheses include cholesterol crystals, stacks of fused cell membranes, and cystine crystals. No treatment is required if it does not impact vision.

Reference

• Natung T, Thangkhiew L, Keditsu A, Shullai W. Christmas Tree Cataract – A Cataract that Glitters. J Clin Diagn Res. 2016; 10(4): NJ01-2.

Holiday Heart

The authors observed 24 different patients who had a total of 34 presentations with excess alcohol resulting in atrial fibrillation, flutter or tachycardia. They observed there seemed to be a spike in presentations at the end of the year and not at other national celebrations and hence the term ‘holiday heart’ was adopted from jokes around their departments.

Cardiac arrhythmias presenting during weekend or holiday drinking episodes are associated with conduction delays and depressed cardiac performance indicative of early cardiomyopathy and suggest a “holiday heart” syndrome.

Ettinger et al 1978

Reference

• Ettinger PO, Wu CF, De La Cruz C Jr, Weisse AB, Ahmed SS, Regan TJ. Arrhythmias and the “Holiday Heart”: alcohol-associated cardiac rhythm disorders. Am Heart J. 1978; 95(5): 555-562

Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal

This Renaissance sketch shows a transparent view of the anatomy of sexual intercourse as envisaged by the anatomists of his time. The semen was supposed to come down from the brain through a channel which can be seen in the spine of the man. In the woman the right lactiferous duct is depicted as originating in the right female breast and ending in the genital area. Many people thought the penis would be straight during coitus and it wasn’t until this MRI study that we discovered it forms a boomerang shape. 

References

• Schultz WW, Andel PV, Sabelis I and Mooyaart E. Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal. BMJ 1999; 319(7225): 1596-600
• Ig Nobel prize – MRI Sex: The most viewed article in BMJ, after 20 years.

Spruce Beer

Spruce beer, made of the black spruce, either fresh or dried, or from its essence, is an excellent medicine. This beer must be drank daily, and the parts affected with the eruption [of scurvy] bathed with it night and morning

Lind 1753: 220-222

References:

• Lind J. Chapter IV: Of the scurvy being connate, hereditary, and infectious. In: A treatise of the scurvy, in three parts. Containing an inquiry into the nature, causes, and cure, of that disease. Together with a critical and chronological view of what has been published on the subject. 1753