In 1863, Lancereaux read before the French Society of Biology an observation of lead poisoning. A 37-year-old woman, “who had worked as a decorative painter since the age of 12, and who had developed the regrettable habit of sucking on her paintbrush”, died after a dreadful struggle: severe colic, progressive amaurosis, repeated convulsions, paralysis with progressive onset in all four limbs, accompanied by anaesthesia and profound cachexia. At the time, the data on neurological damage were