White lead
Cerussa; ceruse
- Known today as
- Basic lead carbonate.
- Kind
- Mineral, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- lead carbonate
- Poisoning
- Mercury, arsenic, lead, and antimony
- Earliest authority here
- Theophrastus (c. 371–c. 287 BC)
- In other databases
- Wikidata search
Caution. Poisonous.
White lead: what was it used for?
Cooling and drying in ointments for burns and ulcers; and, notoriously, a whitening paint for the face.
White lead: what does modern science say?
A cumulative poison; lead causes damage to the brain, kidneys, and blood.
White lead: is it poisonous?
Yes, in some form or dose. Poisonous. Its poisoning is mercury, arsenic, lead, and antimony: Minutes to hours for a large dose; months or years for the slow poisoning of the trades. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- Lead displaces calcium and zinc in enzymes and the nerves; in children it lowers intelligence at any dose.
- Toxic dose
- No safe level; chronic poisoning from paint and cosmetics.
- Syndrome
- Mercury, arsenic, lead, and antimony
- Standing
- Banned in paint across most of the world; the cosmetic use that whitened the faces of the Elizabethans killed slowly.
- Needleman, H. (2004). “Lead poisoning.” Annual Review of Medicine 55. Verified against its record · doi:10.1146/annurev.med.55.091902.103653
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
White lead: what lore surrounds it?
White lead had a long career as Venetian ceruse, the whitening face paint associated above all with Elizabeth I, whose decades of use are often blamed for the hair loss and skin damage of her later years. Its part in her death is circumstantial: she refused examination by her physicians and no post-mortem was made, so lead poisoning stands beside cancer and pneumonia as an unproven candidate.
White lead: what did the older authorities say?
- Theophrastus
- Describes its manufacture from lead exposed to the fumes of vinegar.
Sources
- Theophrastus, On Stones. Book, not indexed
- Pliny, Natural History XXXIV. Primary text
- Ancient Origins, “Was Queen Elizabeth I Killed by her Poisonous White Makeup?” Book, not indexed
In Symbols of the Psyche
Lead: what it stood for in alchemy and in analytical psychology.
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 4 cited: 1 verified against its record, 1 primary text, 2 book, not indexed. 1 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026
- Chicago
“White lead.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 25, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/white-lead.
- MLA
“White lead.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 25 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/white-lead. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
White lead. (2026, September 25). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/white-lead
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See Also
Poisoned alike: mercury, arsenic, lead, and antimony
Antimony · White arsenic · Armenian stone, pills of · Vitriol · Aurum potabile · Verdigris · Cinnabar · Quicksilver · the syndrome, with all of them →
Also in Theophrastus
Peony in Theophrastus · Hemlock in Theophrastus · Opopanax in Theophrastus · everything Theophrastus names →
Drawing on the same sources: Theophrastus, Pliny, Needleman
Aconite · Silphium · Yarrow · Walnut, middle bark of · Alum · Litharge · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
White willow (The bark and leaves of Salix alba) · White hellebore · Wild bergamot · Wild carrot, seed of (Queen Anne’s lace) · Weapon-salve · Wild garlic (Allium ursinum) · Wax ex-votos
Historical description, not medical advice.