Eto K, Yasutake A, Nakano A, Akagi H, Tokunaga H, Kojima T
National Institute for Minamata Disease, Japan.
Tohoku J Exp Med. 2001 Aug;194(4):197-203. doi: 10.1620/tjem.194.197.
Autopsy specimens from the historic cat experiment were recently discovered in a storage area at the Kumamoto University School of Medicine. The specimens were from an experiment prompted by physicians in the Chisso Minamata Plant following the announcement made by the Study Group for Minamata disease. On July 14, 1959 the Group announced that the disease was most likely caused by a kind of organic mercury. In order to prove or disprove that industrial waste from the Chisso Factory was the culprit in Minamata disease, a total of ten cats were fed food mixed with industrial waste produced in the acetaldehyde-producing plant. One of the ten cats, No. 717, was subsequently autopsied but the autopsy findings have never been published or recorded in the literature despite their historic significance. The rediscovered specimens were studied pathologically and biochemically, and were analyzed chemically with currently available techniques. Characteristic lesions of methylmercury poisoning were observed in the central nervous system, and the mercury levels in the cerebrum, cerebellum, liver and kidney were found to be markedly elevated in this animal.
来自历史性猫实验的尸检标本最近在熊本大学医学院的一个储存区域被发现。这些标本来自水俣病研究小组宣布之后，水俣氮肥厂的医生们所进行的一项实验。1959年7月14日，该小组宣布这种疾病很可能是由一种有机汞引起的。为了证明或反驳水俣工厂的工业废料是水俣病的罪魁祸首，总共十只猫被喂食了与乙醛生产厂产生的工业废料混合的食物。十只猫中的一只，编号717，随后被解剖，但尽管其具有历史意义，解剖结果从未在文献中发表或记录过。对重新发现的标本进行了病理和生化研究，并使用现有技术进行了化学分析。在这只动物的中枢神经系统中观察到了甲基汞中毒的特征性病变，并且发现其大脑、小脑、肝脏和肾脏中的汞含量明显升高。
