Three Crucial Scientific Observations from Mistaken Hypotheses

In 1949 John Cade, a senior medical officer of the Victorian Department of Mental Hygiene, Australia, investigated the effects of lithium carbonate and lithium citrate on the mental state of patients suffering from mania or manic depression (1). This illness is sometimes known as bipolar disorder. Lithium was regarded as a controversial medication, which had resulted in the deaths of some patients and could sometimes cause unpleasant side effects. In the 19th century it was used for the treatment of gout and other ailments following the discovery by Garrod that lithium urate, a salt of uric acid, was the most soluble alkali metal urate. The presence of crystalline monosodium urate monohydrate (2) in the human body causes acute gouty arthritis, so the traditional use of lithium as a remedy for this has a theoretical basis. Pieces of cartilage with uric acid deposits were immersed in solutions of sodium, potassium, and lithium carbonate. Lithium carbonate was the fastest solution to dissolve the deposits. Enthusiasm for its use extended into other medications and also led to the widespread use of bottled curative waters, some of which are still marketed today, such as Perrier and Vichy, promoted at one time for their lithium content. THREE CRUCIAL SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS FROM MISTAKEN HYPOTHESES