Analysis of Human Tissue Ash with a Direct Reading Spectrometer

Abstract

The use of a direct reading spectrometer and direct current arc excitation of the spectrum for the spectrochemical analysis of human tissue ash has been described. This is a procedure for making determinations of concentrations of a comparatively large number of elements simultaneously, and the analyses are accomplished without an excessive amount of sample preparation. The use of a direct reader to replace the time-consuming procedure of determining spectrum line intensity ratios with the photographic process has been observed to be a very great improvement. The precision of the method has been examined by making replicate analyses of a single sample and the average of the coefficients of variation for all elements was 7.8 percent. The concentrations for each of the 3 elements, cadmium, zinc, and calcium, in 14 soft tissues from as many as 93 cases, have been discussed.