Samuel Stockhausen is considered by some to be the first occupational physician.

Unlike his near contemporary, Paracelsus, who also wrote about diseases of miners, Stockhausen recognizes litharge-derived dust as the causative factor and recommends avoiding inhaling it.

This is the first time that the ancient syndrome known to Romans as morbi metallici is attributed specifically to chronic poisoning with lead.

A German physician in the mining town of Goslar, has studied the ancient miner's disease, called Hüttenkatze, among workers in the nearby mines of Rammelsberg in the Harz mountains.

He publishes in 1656, a book, in Latin, attributing the disease to noxious fumes from litharge (a lead compound), Libellus de lithargyrii fumo noxio morbifico, ejusque metallico frequentiori morbo vulgò dicto die Hütten Katze oder Hütten Rauch (“Treatise on the Noxious Fumes of Litharge, Diseases caused by them and Miners’ Asthma”).