Trace metals in the brain and in Wilson's disease1

It is not uncommon for the Foundation Lecturer to gather material from personal archives and this has, to some extent, been the custom of previous lecturers of whom I name but two: our illustrious founder, Dr. Sydney Dyke, and one of my teachers, Dr. J. G. Greenfield. This I shall do relating my findings in some diseases due to trace metals to published work by other investigators. My interest in heavy metals in the brain began just before the last war but it was not until about 1947 or almost exactly 20 years ago that my first useful results were obtained. At that time I was estimating copper, iron, and manganese in normal and diseased cerebral tissues and I was fortunate enough to examine material from three cases of Wilson's disease, now universally agreed to be a condition in which there is an accumulation of copper in many tissues. Although that great authority, Thudichum, reported in 1884 his findings concerning brain biochemistry it is only in the last 25 years that exact knowledge has been obtained concerning some heavy metals, present in trace amounts in the brain. Consideration will be given here to only two, namely, iron and copper, but it is hoped to report upon other trace metals later.