A 19-Century French Child Was Treated With Mercury For Scurvy And Rickets
At the archaeological site of Rue Thubeuf in Rouen, France, 53 burials dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries were excavated from a cemetery. Of these remains, 18 were studied, including the skeletal remains of a child who died at three to four years old.
The child lived in mid-19th-century France and had suffered from scurvy and rickets. He was likely treated with mercury, a highly toxic metal, before his death. For centuries, mercury has been used to treat a variety of diseases.
“There is a real paradox between mercury’s high toxicity (that we know today) and its historical appeal. In the past, mercury was seen as magical and esoteric,” said researchers Alexander Zinn and Dr. Antony Colombo.
“More than 2,000 years ago, mercury was already being used in Greek, Arab, Chinese, and Egyptian medicine, particularly for treating skin and venereal diseases. Its use as a medicine is evidenced by ancient Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, and Arabic medical reports.”
The use of mercury began in the United Kingdom in the 18th century. It spread to other countries by the 19th century.
During the Industrial Revolution, mercury continued to be used. Industrialization came with some benefits. For instance, it led to the invention and advancement of medical systems and public health policies.
However, it also caused overpopulation in urban areas, increased air pollution, and high rates of child labor in mines and factories, resulting in the rise of certain diseases.
Scurvy and rickets, two diseases characterized by severe deficiencies in vitamins C and D, were common in the lower and middle classes.
“It is known that industrialization had a negative impact on children’s living conditions and health, with an increase in deficiency diseases such as rickets in the U.K. But industrialization in France came about in a slightly different way to England: later and less abruptly, against a context of intense political and social changes,” said Zinn and Colombo.
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This period has not been studied in-depth, and it was only during a previous project in 2021 that mercury was identified as a treatment for rickets.
So, the researchers wanted to investigate mercury in skeletal mineral structures and see whether it could be interpreted as a medical treatment.
The researchers used micro-CT scanning, X-ray fluorescence, and cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry to determine that the child had been suffering from both scurvy and rickets. He also had unusually high levels of mercury in his bones and teeth.
Next, they needed to figure out if the mercury had been administered as a treatment or if it was from environmental exposure.
Contamination from the soil was quickly ruled out because Rouen does not contain mercury-rich minerals or materials. In addition, contamination from occupation was eliminated.
The only contenders for contaminants were mirror and hat factories, but it was unlikely that the child was in these factories. Mercury contamination from food arose later in the 20th century.
Therefore, the mercury found in the child’s bones and teeth was most likely from medical administration. It was given to him in the last few months of his life, leading to severe mercury poisoning.
The study was published in the International Journal of Paleopathology.
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