A critical review of epidemiologic studies on black-foot disease.

An endemic disease in Taiwan named "Black-foot Disease", which has been researched since 1958 and about which many papers have been published, was considered caused by arsenic poisoning from artesian well water. In the beginning some information related to the disease before 1958 is introduced and then, reviews of the six papers titled "Epidemiologic Studies" on "Black-foot Disease" are made without referring to any findings from other papers. The data related to the incidence and severity of the disease from the papers are reevaluated, paying special attention to the fact that the incidence of the disease increased after the installation of pipe system water-supply to replace the artesian wells. With the above-mentioned result the theory which considers arsenic poisoning as the cause of the disease, is disproved.