Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2341

HUNTER HALL COMLY (b. 1919) Cyanosis in infants caused by nitrates in well water. (In Journal of the American Medical Association. Vol. 129 (1945), pp. 112-116.) 16 cm.

Physicians had reported cyanosis with no recognizable cause as early as the middle of the nineteenth century but it was not possible to identify the chief causes of this unexplained condition until the scientific advances of the early twentieth century. By the mid-1940s an hereditary form of methemoglobinemia had been identified and it was known that certain chemicals and drugs could induce the condition. It was Comly who made the important link between nitrates and methemoglobinemia in infants fed formula mixed with well water. While a pediatric resident, Comly had the opportunity to study two cyanotic infants suffering from methemoglobinemia and made the connection between the disorder and well-water nitrates. He was well aware of the danger of nitrate-contaminated water in rural wells and recommended breast-feeding whenever possible. Even though nitrate content is now included in tests of water purity, cases of methemoglobinemia still appear in many rural states because of water-borne nitrates. Comly, a native of Denver, Colorado, studied medicine at Yale University and completed residencies in pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of Iowa. He is now a practicing child psychiatrist in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 3103

Gift of Dr. & Mrs. Hunter H. Comly