Devon colic

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Devon colic is an affliction caused by lead poisoningwhich was suffered by the people of Devonduring parts of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The first written account we have of the colic comes from 1655. Symptoms began with severe abdominal pains and the condition was occasionally fatal. Cideris the traditional drink of Devonians, and the connection between the colic and apple juice and cider drinking had been observed for many years. This was commonly attributed to the acidity of the beverage.

However, the precise cause was not discovered until the 1760s when Dr George Baker put forwards the hypothesis that poisoning from leadin apple juice was to blame. He observed that the symptoms of the colic were similar to those of lead poisoning. He pointed out that lead was used in the cider making process both as a component of the cider presses and in the form of lead shot which was used to clean them. He also conducted chemical tests to demonstrate the presence of lead in Devon apple juice.

The publication of his results met with some hostile reaction from cider manufacturers, keen to defend their product.

Once Baker's conclusions became accepted and the elimination of lead from the cider presses was undertaken, the colic declined. By 1818, Baker's son reported that it was "hardly known to exist" in Devon.

External links

• Etched on Devon's Memory

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devon+colic Wikipedia article Devon colic.