Analysis of mercury levels in historical bone material from syphilitic subjects - pilot studies (short report)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3778600 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Małgorzata Kępa (0000-0002-4013-6688, Jagiellonian University), Tomasz Kozłowski (0000-0001-5242-6095), K Szostek (0000-0001-7815-928X), Alicja Drozd-Lipińska (0000-0002-1562-8090), Alicja Drozd, Stanisław Wala, Stanisław Walas, Halina Mrowiec, Beata Stepańczak, Henryk Głąb (0000-0001-5375-9684), Małgorzata Grupa (0000-0001-5128-9754) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 367-377 |
| Publication date | 2012-07-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropologischer Anzeiger (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-5548 • E-ISSN: 2363-7099 |
| Publisher | E. Schweizerbart (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1127/0003-5548/2012/0163 |
| PMID | 22928357 |
| OpenAlex | W2325290388 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
The aim of the present work is to study the remains of seven individuals with typical symptoms of tertiary syphilis in terms of mercury content in bones, thereby verifying whether they were subjected to treatment and, if they were, how long their organisms were exposed to toxic mercury fumes. Mercury was used, mainly in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period, as a preventive measure in case of individuals suffering from syphilis, a venereal disease, and also leprosy. Syphilitic patients treated this way should demonstrate increased concentration of mercury in their bones. The skeletons studied in the present work originate from various archaeological sites in southern and north-central Poland. The analyses concerned individuals with diagnosed syphilis as well as healthy individuals who constituted the control group. The analyses were performed by the LA-ICP-MS technique, with the use of laser Nd: YAG, Macro, 266 nm, New Wave, USA, coupled with Spectrometer Elan DRC-e Perkin Elmer, USA. The content analysis of the studied bone material revealed with high probability that the contact method of mercurial treatment was used only in the case of two women from north-central Poland, deceased at the turn of the 15th century at the earliest
Mercury (programming language · Syphilis · Forensic and Genetic Research · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Immunology · Medicine · Paleopathology and ancient diseases
Archeometric detection of mercury
An isotopic case study of individuals with syphilis from the pathological-anatomical reference collection of the national museum in Prague (Czech Republic, 19th century A.D.)
Congenital syphilis in the skeleton of a child from Poland (Radom, 18th–19th century AD)
Historical overview and new directions in bioarchaeological trace element analysis
Assessing pathological conditions in archaeological bone using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF)
Synchrotron X-ray fluorescence imaging evidence of biogenic mercury identified in a burial in colonial Antigua
The Role of Toxicological Analyses in Anthropology
Mercury poisoning in two patients with tertiary syphilis from the Ca’ Granda hospital (17th‐century Milan)
Advancing the understanding of treponemal disease in the past and present
Diagnosing congenital syphilis using H utchinson's method
Mercury treatment in late medieval European leprosaria? New data from human dental calculus
Toxicological analyses of the bone matrix
Dental developmental defects due to mercurial treatment in a child from sixteenth-century Alghero (Sardinia, Italy)
Renaissance mercurial therapy in the mummies of Saint Domenico Maggiore in Naples
Volcanoes, medicine, and monasticism
| Citations per year | 1.36 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2015 - 2026 (12) |
| Highly cited | No |