重金属中毒に於ける脳及び肝の組織呼吸に関する実験的研究

Studies on the Tissue Respiration of the Brains and Livers from Animals experimentally poisoned by Heavy Metals.

I．緒言

　近年，化学工業の発達と共に色々の中毒が報告せられているが，特に重金属中毒が注目を集めている。その中で職業病としてマンガン鉱山におけるマンガン中毒，水銀鉱山における水銀中毒をはじめ各種化学工場における亜急性乃至慢性中毒及び研究室に於ける中毒があり，産業衛生，或いは環境衛生上看過し得ない重要なる問題となつて来た。

　昭和29年頃から熊本県水俣市の南部海岸地域に原因不明の中枢神経系疾患^1）が発生し，現在迄に78名の患者を出し内31名（39.7％）の死亡を見た。何れの患者も初め四肢末端及び口唇のしびれ感，言語障害，聴力障害，視野狭窄，歩行障害，末梢神経障害，震顫等を主とする小脳症状を主徴としており，我々は本病を普通型，急性劇症型，慢性刺激型，慢性強直型の4型に分ちその詳細を報告した^2）。

The tissue respiration of the brains and livers from cats and rats administered with organic mercury, manganese or shell-fishes from Mina-mata Bay were measured by Warburg's mano-meter.

The results were as follows: (1) The fall of Qo₂ was observed after the administration of manganeṡe in either cats or rats. although none of them fell ill.

(2) Marked fall of Qo₂ was seen in cerebel-lums and midbrains of cats and cerebellums of rats which were given with administration of or-ganic mercury.

(3) The Qo₂ dropped markedly in the cere-bellums of rats and cats administered orally with shell-fishes from Minamata Bay where so-called Minamata Disease, unknown caused central ner-vous disturbance, occured by.

Because the mentioned patterns of Qo₂ in the tissues from the animals given organic mercury and the shell-fishes were similar, it may be con-sidered that the cause of the Minamata Disease is the some kind of poisoning by organic mercury.