The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1874-04-18
Paint or Paper ?

| {.
No one need be informed, however
slight his pretensions to a knowledge of
chemistry, that arsenic is one of the dead
liest of poisons. Unless bent on suicide,
no person, it is presumed. would knowing
ly expose himself to its fatal action. 1t
would seem, however-and we have the
best authority for the statement-that
many are hourly subjecting themselves
uneonsciously to it in all its virulence.
A general alarm having been aroused
some time since in regard to the dangers
of bright green wallpaper. it is presumed
that no one, unless utterly reckless of life,
persists in using it wherever he may have
to pass any part of his daily existence. 1t
has only lately been revealed, however, to
scientific observation that green paper of
all shades, whether pale or brilliant, in
large or little, giving color to the ground
or merely to the pattern, contains, as
rule, arsenic, and is therefore dangerous.
ST have by me-" says an investigator,
specimens of pale green papers contain
the deadly amounts of six, nine, and four
teen grains of arsenic to the square foot.
Papers not entirely green, but having
green in the pattern, sprays OF leaves, ETC.,
on white or light-colored grounds, contain
arsenic in various quantities, from the frac-
| tional part of grain to eight grains and
upward to the square foot. !"
The investigator from whom we have
| quoted is enabled to confirm his statement
by the experience of suffering from wall
paper poisoning which proved almost
fatal to his own household. He and
his family, while from time to
time under the baleful influence OF
this malignant green, were made to Illus
trate in their own persons the symptoms
1 Il h. Kt.ax nlOerv
Beginning with cold in the head, sore
| throat. stomach attacks, and such small
ailments, they gradually passed through
eongestions of the mucous membrane
i throughout its whole extent, and suffered
successfully from chronic dyspepsia, irri-
tation of the brain, affections of the liver,
rheumatic gout, neuralgia, eruptive COM
plants of various kinds, asthma, bron-
chitis, toothaehe, cramps, spasms, conyul-
sions, and incipient paralysis! After four
teen years of this nosological experience
and suffering, and after rejecting 6 between
seventy and eighty houses because so many
of the rooms had this deadly green on the
walls,'' the severely tried investigator
finally installed himself and family in a
dwelling with not spot of green. While,
however, rejoicing in the brown, white,
red, buff, mauve, and gray, which now
tinted the papers of his new mansion, he
began. alas to renew his experience with
the nosology. Suspecting, naturally, that
the old poison was at work. he analyZed
some samples of wallpaper, and discov-
cred that, with three exceptions arsenic
was present in all, and quite as active in
mischief under the new eolors as the ole
one of green. He now very judiciously
J having first submitted himself and family
to a parboiling by course of Turkish
baths at the temperature OF 1902 f., re
moved all the paper from the walls OF hIi
house, and replaced it with "a simple
i wash Of chalk and size, tinted with Indian
, red."
Apart from these unquestionable dan
gers of paper, it is in every other respee
i, less desirable than paint for the walls of the
dwelling. Wallpaper is apt to harbor filti
, of all kinds, and the size and paste essen
tial to its use will necessarily be decom
posed in time. and become sources certain
/ fy of impurity if not ill-health. In case 0
infectious and contagious disease, paper i
sure to imbibe the poison, and will resist al
attempts to dislodge or disinfeet it. Painted
walls are infinitely cleaner, as they are no
such ready recipients of dirt, and, more
over, can be thoroughly cleansed at an.
! and every moment; and for thorough dis
{ infection from all contagious and Infection
properties nothing more is requisite thai
fresh coat of paint. At one time the hard
finished wall, as it was called, was univer
sally preferred. and the common tendenc.
to substitute for it the various colore'
. paper-hangings is believed to be danger
; Gus one. The plain white wall has naked
E eomfortless air, but it can be painted ant
e decorated warmly and tastefully withou
any great expense. and though the frs
cost may be greater, paint will prove NOR
i economical in the end, and in every othe
respect more desirable than paper.-Har
+ pe,'s Bazar.
G