All complaints mentioned by both exposed groups are compatible with the
erethism syndrome and other manifestations that occur after continuous exposure to mercury.
It is in the context of this intercorporeal affective drama that we should understand "affective
erethism" and "affective tetanization." If tetanization is convulsive spasming brought on by infection with pathogenic bacteria, then affective tetanization is an infection of racializing affects that overtake one's own bodily motility, an infection or possession through affective means that undoes the body's own expressive and communicative capacities.
In Illinois, public health surveillance did not identify any cases of acrodynia or clinically overt mercury poisoning (manifested by
erethism, tremor, and gingivitis) as a result of these exposures.
This anthology is both an obvious provocation that runs the risk of
erethism (as does the Museum of Jurassic Technology, for that matter) and a refreshing archive that embraces the cul-de-sacs and phantom limbs of literature, and cultivates curiosity in those crevices.
Long-term occupational exposure to [Hg.sup.0] is associated with symptoms of
erethism, characterized by irritability, depression, introversion, apprehension, loss of self-confidence, and other nonspecific symptoms (WHO 1976, 1991, 2003).
This neurologic syndrome, termed
erethism, is seen most commonly in workers with poorly controlled, high-dose occupational exposure to metallic mercury (3).