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A recent study, in the International Journal of Paleopathology, examined the skeletal remains of a child who lived in mid-19th-century France. The study revealed that the child had suffered from rickets and scurvy and was likely treated using mercury before his death at only 3–4 years old.

Mercury is a highly toxic metal that has been used to treat various diseases for centuries, including venereal and skin diseases, say researchers Alexandra Zinn and Dr. Antony Colombo, "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.

"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."

Mercury's use continued during the Industrial Revolution, which began in the UK in the 18th century and spread to other countries by the 19th century.

It was characterized by rapid technological and scientific growth, which led to the invention and advancement of numerous medical systems and public health policies. In some instances, this led to an improved quality of life, higher birth rates, lower infant mortality rates, longer life expectancies, and reduced mortality rates from infectious diseases.

However, industrialization also led to increased air pollution, overpopulation in urban areas, and high rates of child labor in factories and mines, which in turn led to the prevalence of other diseases.

Scurvy and rickets, two diseases characterized by severe vitamin C and D deficiencies, respectively, were prevalent, especially in the lower and middle socio-economic 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 UK. 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.

"Bioanthropologists in France have done relatively little research into this period. It was during a previous project, published by A. Colombo and other colleagues in 2021, to understand these health conditions in France, using a paleo-epidemiological approach of rickets during this transitional period, based on anthropological data and historical archives, that they identified mercury as a common treatment for rickets.

"We therefore wanted to find out whether it was possible to detect mercury in skeletal mineral structures and whether it could be interpreted as a treatment for rickets."

The skeletal remains used in the study were recovered from the archaeological site of Rue Thubeuf, located in Rouen, France. Excavations of the Saint-Gervais parish cemetery revealed 53 burials dating to the 18th and 19th centuries. Of these remains, 18 were studied, including individual SP5.

With the implementation of physical analysis, micro-CT scanning, X-ray fluorescence, and cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry (a sensitive chemical detection method), the researchers were able to determine that the child had suffered from both rickets and scurvy and had abnormally high levels of mercury in his bones and teeth.

The origin of the mercury in the child's bones needed to be determined to deduce if the mercury had been administered as a medical treatment or a byproduct of environmental contamination.

Contamination from the interred soil was quickly ruled out as the geology of Rouen does not contain mercury-rich minerals or materials. Additionally, contamination from occupation was ruled out. Rouen was known for its cotton textile production, an occupation that did not implement mercury.

While earthwork productions did use mercury for gilding and enameling processes, these took place outside Saint-Gervais, making it an unlikely source of mercury contamination. The only occupational contaminant contenders were mirror and hat factories, which did exist in the peripheries of the archaeological site.

However, given the child's young age, he would have been unlikely to have been in these factories or exposed to them to the same extent as working adults.

The researchers considered the possibility of mercury contamination from food, specifically through the consumption of certain types of fish. However, mercury contamination of fish stocks arose with industrialization and large-scale mercury emissions in the late 20th century.

It was thus most likely that the mercury found in the child's bones and teeth was the result of medical administration.

"Mercury treatments were painful and exhausting, leading patients to experience unwanted effects, including asphyxia, dizziness, delirium, tooth loss, and 'mercurial glossitis' (inflammation of the tongue due to mercury exposure). Usually, the treatment was considered complete when excessive salivation appeared, which could be taken as an encouraging sign that the disease was being expelled (assuming the patient had not died before)."

Based on the mercury concentrations in the teeth and bones, it was determined the child had likely been administered the lethal metallic substance in the last few months of his life, leading to severe mercury poisoning.

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